Forgotten Hearts
by AveryScarlet
Summary: My memories, my heart, they're all scattered. I don't understand why he's so willing to help me... who was I to him? Who am I to him now? SoraxOC Sora/OC slight Roxas/OC
1. I

**Ok this is based on the second installment of Kingdom Hearts! I tried making it based on the first but the ideas that came into my head were too dark and it would be horrible to imagine Sora in that kind of manner. Any who please Enjoy! R &R and make sure to enjoy this every step of the way! So I won't do any POV changes since this entire story is basically on my oc's struggles. This might be a short series since the game is sooooo long! I'm going to play 2.5 once the game comes out so it might inspire me to keep going. I'm not making it bloody like all those other fanfics. *shivers* Who puts blood and R-rated stuff for a game like this?**

* * *

 _'I've been having these weird dreams lately..._

 _most of the time I wonder... if any of if was real..._

 _Is this my reality...?'_

 ** _Chapter 1 ~ Separate Hearts_**

Standing by the sea shores of Destiny Island was a girl, her back turned from the world as her long blue hair sways from side to side in rhythm with the breezy wind. As she continued to stares out at the vast ocean two men in black cloaks walks up from behind her back a few feet away from where she stood, both watching the girl as she just stood there in the same manner as a statue. "Is she ready?" one of the speaks up as he gazes at the girl under his hood. The taller one looks down at him then back at the girl, "As long as her other still dwells by _his_ side we should be fine."

||Twilight Town||

 _"I'll bring him back Kairax, that's a promise."_

The words of Axel still echoed through my head as I sat down in the usual spot on top of the clock tower of twilight town. Alone by myself eating my favorite sea salt ice-cream as I watch the usual sunset of the peaceful town. That promise was nothing but empty words to me. I know the orders Xemnas had given before Axel was sent here to retrieve Roxas, even if he was ordered and intended to bring him back, the problem is if Roxas refused to back with Axel then he'll be forced to get rid of him. I kept thinking to myself that Axel will bring him back, that Roxas will oblige to his best friends request on coming back.

"And yet... I still have this weird feeling inside my chest..." I mutter as I grip onto my shirt where my supposed heart should be. My name is Kairax, also known as no. XV. I'm part of a group of special nobodies like me called Organization XIII and I happen to also be a nobody that can wield a keyblade, but there is something different about me compared to the others. And it has nothing to do with me wielding a keyblade. Xemnas found out not to long ago that I had a heart fragment inside of me, meaning I have the ability to feel unlike all of the rest who are force to pretend they have feelings like a normal person with a heart.

Even though I had a heart fragment inside of me, there's a small catch. I can't go through Dark Corridors like everyone else can, my heart fragment is fragile so it is unknown whether it's strong enough to fight off the darkness or can be easily taken by the negative energy. "The only way I can travel is a secret, Roxas and I-" I stop myself the moment the familiar name slipped out of my mouth. Roxas, former member of the organization and the reason why I've been in Twilight Town for a few hours. Though it was meant to be impossible for nobodies like me and Roxas, we somehow gained the ability that none of us had expected to happen, love. That's right.

I thought at first it would be a one sided thing for only me to feel since no other nobody had this special fate like mine to get the chance to feel even if he/she isn't a somebody, that is until that certain fateful day.

++Day 201++

 _The World That Never Was..._

 _I held back with all of my might against the hundreds of heartless before me, blocking at every unknown heavy that was thrown at me in an unbearable amount of time I had from how much space left around me when I wanted to counter attack the heartless. The normal ant-like heartless isn't a problem for me it's the numbers and speed I have to deal with all by myself, the worst part is that this is my very first solo mission EVER since I first joined the organization, and to think the entire time I've been dealing with these heartless on every mission I've been sent on I had someone with me to help me deal with these heartless._

 _Now I'm all alone... "AAAAHHH!" I scream in pain as a heartless send my flying backward. My back crashes again a nearby wall at the same time my head collides against the wall, sending a large wave of pain throughout my entire body. As my vision starts to go hazy, I tried my best to hold Redemption (that's the name of the keyblade) up at the upcoming heartless that were slowly marching up towards me, but my arm felt so weak that my keyblade slowly started to feel heavier the longer I held it up in the air._

 _'Is this it...?' I thought to myself after finally letting go of my keyblade, allowing it to fall onto the ground beside me as the heartless closed in on me. 'So I guess I won't be able to live up to my promise... Good-bye... Roxas...' I close my eyes and prepared myself for what's to come as a heartless lunges towards me with it's long claws inches away from my face. But it never came. Instead, loud sound of footsteps echoed into my ears and the next thing shocked me right when I finally decided to open my eyes. Roxas stood before me with his Kingdom Key out and attacked every heartless that was meant to come at me._

 _I watch helplessly as he fends off the heartless in my place, hitting each and every one of them one by one as they continue their hopeless effort on attacking either of us. When they were all finally gone Roxas runs to my slides to my side yelling at me worriedly, "Kairax! Just hold on I have a potion here!" As he shuffles through his pockets for a potion, I couldn't help reach up to his face, caressing his face as Roxas freezes at my sudden kind touch. "Have you always had such pretty eyes...?" I ask him in a delusional manner, my vision slowly starting to turn hazier by the minute the longer I fought back to stay awake._

 _My thoughts were fighting against my delusional self, 'That's enough! Don't say anything else!' But I continued speaking out my feelings, "You know it would be funny if I die here... Like all of those lesser nobodies... our comrades... I sometimes hate being the only nobody to actually feel while everyone else I know in the organization can't... Cause there's something that I've always felt towards you Roxas..." 'No! Shut up! Please! It's better to stay as friends than get rejected by him!' my inner self pleads desperately when I mention having feeling towards Roxas, scared that if I were to confess I would end up having the worst rejection I'll have in my life._

 _"_ _I have always-"  
"Loved you."  
_

 _For a second, I thought I was the one to confess my feelings. In the end it was actually Roxas who had confessed to me instead of the other way around like I had expected myself to. "You... love me?" I ask after finally snapping back to my regular self and gaining back my regular vision to see clearly. I don't even know how I regained my strength till I looked down on my hands. The potion that I was meant to drink had spilled onto my hand, guess it is true no matter what, you can either drink it or have it spilled right onto you._

 _Roxas grasped onto my hand that was still on his cheek, "Nobodies aren't meant to feel... we have no hearts... You are the only nobody that's suppose to have the ability to feel... And yet I can't stop thinking about you...! No matter what I do! Kairax, you are the only one that's been on my mind ever since you first joined the organization. I thought it was just because you felt so familiar to me, but the more I got closer to you I couldn't help myself except wanting to protect you no matter what! When you left on this solo mission of yours and never came back after an entire week... I almost went crazy! That's when I came to realize that I had the ability to feel, to feel love, and the reason I can feel is because of you Kairax."_

++Present++

All this time, ever since Roxas had left the organization I was left broken to figure out how to consort with myself about these sudden new feelings entering inside my chest, and every single time I went past his room my chest wouldn't stop aching. I tried my best to forget about him, but what's happening to me is exactly what Roxas had to go through when I too left. Though this was different compared to me. He won't come back. I should know, I witnessed his leave and his capture.

++Day 315++

 _I watch from afar as Roxas fought against someone who wore the black organization clock, probably the fake Xemnas has been searching for. I was about to jump in and save Roxas until a hand grabs my wrist, forcing me to watch as the fight comes to it's conclusion when the stranger takes his blindfold and transform into someone, a man that sent a sudden wave of pain in my head the moment the darkness clears and allowed me to see his face. "You can't stop it..." I twirl around as I swipe my keyblade at whoever it was that who was preventing me from saving Roxas. I was about to make another move, but my eyes widen at who it was. Me? She does have blue hair and looks like a much younger version than me. "Hold on... are you... Me?" I reached out to her, but then I heard a loud sound behind my back._

 _I look over to see Roxas on the ground and the stranger with his back turned from the boy, pulling his hood on as another appears and looks down at Roxas. The hooded man suddenly looks up. Lightening lit the sky, and in that short moment, the light illuminated everything around me just enough for me to see the face of the man under the hood. I could still remember what he said. "Akari...?"  
_  
++Present++

Suddenly, a weird resolution came to me, if Roxas had a reason to leave the organization, to leave me behind, then there has to be a very good reason why he had to leave like that and that means I'll follow his lead. I stood up, standing at the edge of where I was previously sitting on, and looked ahead at the vast sky above Twilight Town. "Roxas... Ever since Xion disappeared- No, I have to focus," I slowly began to take off my organization cloak, "you've always done things alone. I want to help you Roxas..." When I finally got the cloak off of my, I held it in my arms close to my chest and readied myself to let go of it.

"This world isn't real... I know that! I will find you no matter what," I vowed as I released the black cloak, floating downwards to the ground and digitized itself into nothing but codes until nothing was left. In this computer word, things that aren't meant to be inside will be erased from existence and can never be retrieved again, just like those who reside here.

"Are you kidding me? I could've taken Seifer out with just one punch!"  
"Yeah sure Hayner, one punch is at that's needed to get you hanging by your underwear on the Twilight clock tower."  
"Shut up Pence!"  
"That is what happened last time."  
"Not you too Roxas!"  
"Boys don't fight! C'mon we have to hurry before the ice cream melts!"

Before I had the chance to escape from view I was caught red handed when a group of 4 teens, around my age, turned a corner and spotted me at the edge of where I stood. One of them who I never thought I would meet so early after making a vow minutes ago and gotten rid of my coat. Hopefully, none of them saw it when I let it go and see how it suddenly disappeared just like that. Roxas and I were the only ones who hadn't broken out intense gaze. I just stare at him with a blank look then leaned forward. Even though I knew I wasn't going to die, none of them knew that and started screaming at me to stop seeing how close I was to falling over before their eyes.

Roxas suddenly grabs me and pulls me back before my entire body could fall off the tower, yelling, "What do you think you're doing!? You can't just leave me now that I get to see you again!" I was taken aback when he said that to me, "Y-You remember me...?" "Uh... Actually I've seen you in my dreams," he tells me truthfully. This wasn't I wanted to hear. "So I'm a dream... and they're not..." I point to the direction of where the trio were. He looks over his shoulder and is shocked to see that his _friends_ had suddenly disappeared into nothing but thin air.

"Hayner!? Pence!? Olette!?" he calls out. "She was right... No matter what I do," I pulled away forcefully, "you won't remember us... Even after making such a stupid promise to me..." I back away even more when Roxas tries to reach out to me once again, but this caused me to lose my footing on the ledge beside me and then slip to the side. I thought I was going to fall peacefully but then Roxas, being as stubborn as ever, grabs my hand. I found myself hanging from my _doom_ as the boy above me tries his best to keep his hold on me. "Stop! You can't-" with all my might I lift myself up to kiss Roxas on his lips.

Ironic how our first kiss would be in a situation such as this, we hid our relationship from the organization for so long that we barely had the chance to even share our first kiss between one another after our confessions. As Roxas' eyes widen in shock from my sudden actions,I took this chance to let go and let myself slip out of his grasp. A blinding white light envelopes my body as I fell down further from the top of the tower. I almost regretted it when I finally heard him call out my name, "KAIRAX!"

||Castle Oblivion||

The moment I open my eyes, I was shocked to see that I ended up in the worst place possible, Castle Oblivion. I've had constant nightmares about this place, and whenever that happens I would see visions of a girl with blue hair sleeping inside this white capsule. Beside her is another capsule but this time with a boy inside. I never got to see who was inside because every time his face is about to appear I suddenly wake up in tears.

 _'Go inside...'_

I jump and summoned my keyblade, looking around my surroundings to check if there was any enemies nearby. "Show yourself!" I demand, preparing to attack.

 _'Go inside... you'll find the answers you're looking for...'_

For some odd reason, I felt like I recognize this voice. Then it hit me, "Xion!? Is that you!?"

 _'You can't be kept in the dark any longer... step inside... and you'll see the truth...'_

Automatically, I de-summoned my keyblade and ran towards the giant doors in hopes to see my missing friend. The moment I swung the doors open I stood there and scanned the white room for any signs of my friend, but sadly, she was no where in sight. A wave of sadness struck me. I shook my head and made a fist, "No... she has to be here! I just know it! Maybe she can help me save Roxas!" With hope of seeing Xion again filling up my chest, I ran to the other side of the room to continue entering the large castle. Then out of nowhere I felt a huge throb in my chest.

"AAAHHHH!" I collapsed onto my knees and clutched my chest tightly as the pain continued to increase by the minute. Images and new emotions were coming in at me all at once, and the last thing I could see before passing out was a tall dark figure appearing from a Dark Corridor walking up towards me.

 _'I'm sorry Kairax...I wish I could explain everything to you... but in your sleep you'll know... everything...'  
_ 'Wait! Xion! Where are you!?"

||Where Nothing Gathers||

"You have defied me for the last time Kairax," two Dusk Nobodies appeared by my side, "so as punishment you shall be locked in your room until you are ordered to leave. If you weren't the only keyblade user left in the organization you would've long been turned into a dusk." I stood in the center of the meeting room obediently, glaring up at Xemnas as he looks back down at me with the same look I was giving him. "What are you planning to do with Roxas once you get him back? And where's Xion!?" I demand. Much to my horror most of the other members didn't seem to know who I was talking about.

Saix spoke up immediately, "We do not know who you are talking about XIV." I step back in shock at the number he just called me. "Number... XIV..?" Without getting the chance to react I was carried away by the two dusks back into my room, with the use of the dark corridor to make it there faster.

||My Room||

When I was dropped to the floor, I got up as quick as my legs could go and tried to run towards my door with my Keyblade out. But right when I was a few inches from the handle someone appears behind my back and forcefully tugs me away before I even got the chance to react. "What are you trying to do Kairax!?" it was Axel. "I told you I was going to get Roxas back no matter what. If Xemnas catches you outside again I can't protect you anymore! So stay put until I come back with him, got it memorized?" I look down at the ground in shame then asked quietly, "Why am I number XIV...?"

"That has always been your number Kairax."  
"But I'm not a true member, am I...?"  
"Now where'd you hear that from!?"  
"I can't tell you Axel. Not when you can even remember her!"  
"That's because I don't even know who she is! There was never a Xion in the organization! That person never even existed to begin with!"  
"That _person_ is your best friend!"

Axel suddenly grabs my shoulder and shakes me lightly, "YOU are my best friend! Along with Roxas! Just please... stay here until I get back. I also brought you another coat for you as well." I watch as Axel lets go of me and leaves my room through a dark corridor. I had lost all my strength and collapsed onto my knees, every inch of will that was left in me disappears in that instant and soon I just sat there staring at the door, afraid to even try and get out again. I brought my knees close to my chest and hugged them. "Xion... I know you were trying to show me something... but what is it..? Can someone please stop keeping me in the dark...?"

I didn't even want to try to wear my new coat, after finally being in that room for the second time I now realized one thing once I took a good look at all the throne seats that circled around me. I was never truly a member of the organization, probably just like Xion by the looks of it. "Looks like Namine didn't tell you enough," I lift my head up and see a boy wearing the organization cloak leaning against the wall. "Riku...!?" I slap a hand over my mouth in shock. He laughs at my reaction, "Even as a nobody you can still tell if it's me... Akari."

I threw the nearest object at him, yelling, "My name is Kairax! I don't know how I know you... but stay back!" To even further shock me, the boy dodges and takes his hood off to reveal his long silver hair, but he kept a black blindfold on. And yet even without that, I still somehow knew who he was. "Thought you wanted to leave?" he asks me. I look away in shame as I muttered, "It's not my fault I got caught..." As we stayed in place quietly I was soon remembering things through Xion's memories and somehow... a small bit of my past. Tears run down my face when I saw a memory of Xion's death through Roxas' eyes then also a short memory of how I lost my heart.

::Memory::

 _"Kairi! Donald! Goofy! Get out of here not while you still have the chance!" I order them as I knock back a few more heartless. Every time I take some out, more would appear and I was forced to continue fighting them off. "But what about you!?" Donald asks me as he too hits back another heartless. I look over at the group with one last smile before lunging myself at the swarm, slashing each and every one of them with my Star Keyblade, the hearts flying up in the air as I continue to do so. "I need you guys to protect Sora! I'll handle it from here!" I cry out and slash another Shadow heartless._

 _"We aren't leaving without you! Sora wouldn't want this-" I interrupt Kairi, "It doesn't matter! People keep telling me that it's the Keyblade's chosen's job to protect the Purest of all Hearts... but I've had enough of that! I'll protect him- even if it means losing my heart in the process!" A giant neo-shadow appeared in front of me, causing all the lesser heartless to leave and disappear at its presence. "Go... NOW!" With one last glance, the others ran off with Kairi holding Sora's heartless in her arms. I could have sworn I saw the heartless reaching out to me. "You think you can fight in that kind of state?" I was shocked to see Riku floating about me- No, he's not the Riku I know he's Ansem._

 _"Your heart is weak! You can barely even focus without thinking of his," Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, mocks as he floats down to my level and grins evilly at me. "I will protect those I love...! Give us back our Riku!" I demand, taking out the neo-shadows with one hit and lunge at Ansem with my keyblade up in the air. Right when my keyblade could touch the top of his head, he makes a hand swipe motion and I find myself flying backwards at the sudden invisible force, forcing me to pull my keyblade back and use it to shield myself._

::Flash::

 _I ran in the direction where the others were and saw they were swarmed by hundred of heartless, any variety that none of them can take- not without Sora there to help them. I jumped about their head and slashed at an upcoming heartless that appeared right beside Kairi. "Akari!" everyone exclaims in joy as they watch me fend off the heartless."Don't worrySora! I'll be the one to protect you this time!" I hear Kairi cry out behind my back. I heard a short scream not long after._ _I was about to turn around only for a hand to pierce me from behind (Me: In a portal like manner okay! No blood!), slowly looking down out my chest to see a white crystal heart and pulled out from behind._

::Next Flash::

 _I (Kairaix) stood there as I watch a group of four running on the beach, two boys racing ahead and two girls run after them laughing. All four I somehow know by heart._

::End of Memory::

"You haven't changed Riku," I blurt out much to his surprise. "How much do you remember?" he urges one. "Not much... but I now know what happened to _her_ and also who I was in the past... but I'm still Kairax no matter what! I may be not as strong as my self, but I'm not weak just because I have a heart shard inside me! I hate that everyone I've known my whole life have been keeping in the dark...! I want to do something... to save them," I turn my gaze back to Riku, but I was surprised that he was no longer there anymore.

"Good," I fall over to the side in surprisewhen Riku suddenly appears standing beside me, "then that means I won't have to force you into coming with me." Riku extends a hand at me much to me confusion. "You want to see him again, don't you?" My eyes widen, clearly understanding what he meant. I gulp, "Are you... going to take me back to where Roxas is?" It was only a one way trip thanks to Namine, but I was only there for a short period of time so I can decide what I was going to do now that I know where he was. I took his hand saying, "Take me back! Please Riku!"

He seemed please to hear this, and not long after I said that I was suddenly wrapped around in darkness for the first time.

||Fake Twilight Town||

I gasp for air after the darkness finally unwrapped itself around us. "Sorry... it was the only way I could bring you here without getting caught," he apologizes and puts his hood back on. "It's fine...!" I reassure him as I finally got some breath back. When I saw he was about to make his leave I felt the need to say this, "Akari doesn't hate you for what you did! More like... she misses you. She wants to thank you for all that you've done for Sora up until now." Riku just stood in place for a few moments then continues to walk off.

Silently, I place a hand on my chest and mutter silently, "Thank you... Riku..."

++Day 314++

 _"Roxas!" I run up to his side right before Roxas about to turn a corner. I grabbed his hand and asked him desperately, "Roxas what's going on? Axel has been telling me these weird things that you're leaving the organization! Is it true!?" I was afraid of what his answer might be, if it was true he was leaving or... or... "It's true," Roxas answers, not bothering to look at me. I fell on my knees in shock. "Why...? Roxas please tell me... you've been acting weird ever since Xion disappeared...!" I held onto his hand tightly, afraid for the first time in my life to let him go. I've been afraid before during countless missions, but to lose someone precious to me is much more than I can bare._

 _He swiftly turns around to look at me. "How do you know her!?" I was surprised at the sudden tone Roxas was using, it was like as if he didn't expect me to say Xion's name at all. I tilt my head in confusion and clarified myself, "She's our best friend, right? It has always been the four of us; you, me, Axel, and Xion." They've always been keeping me in the dark and I hate it, even Roxas knows this. Suddenly, he forcefully tugs my hand away and summons his keyblade. "Rox...as...?" I stood up slowly as I stare down at the keyblade in shock. "People with hearts really are naïve... especially for one with a single heart shard," Roxas says darkly and aims his blade in my direction._

 _"Huh?" before I could react, Roxas suddenly charges towards me for the attack. I was barely able to summon my keyblade and block his attack it in time. I slide back and got into my battle stance. "Roxas what are you doing!?" "The organization is after me," I blocked another attack. "And since you're still with them that means you're my enemy." Every time he tried to hit me, I would always be able to block and jump away from him before he could try to make a second blow. I know his fighting style *whack*, I know his tactics *whack*, I remembered his abilities and limits by heart *whack*...And yet for some reason *clang*... I don't know what he's thinking anymore._

 _I stumble back as my keyblade flies up in the air and stabs the ground a few feet away from where we were. Too far for me to reach._ _I fell backwards as Roxas steps closer to me. "The only reason why I accepted your feelings for me," he jabs his keyblade in my face, "was so that I won't damage your heart shard. It's fragile. Just like you. Nobodies can't feel, that means I can't as well." I felt the pain in my chest deepen at his words. I choked as tears started to come out, "So the only reason why you said you loved me... was for the sake of the organization? Is that it? So they can use me!?"_

 _"..." I hated how he was just watching me with those eyes, not a single hint of emotion in them._ _I hate that I can feel. I hate that I... fell for Roxas. "Get rid of me then," I blurt out. He flinches. "You said I'm your enemy... That means the only way you can keep them from tracking is... is to get rid of me," I said as I grab the handle of his weapon and pulled it closer to my heart._

 _"I'm sick and tired of the lies... I'm sick of these stupid secrets everyone's been hiding from me... and most of all... I am so tired of having to live through all of this! Just take me out! That'll satisfy you, right? One enemy less to worry about... If you're so bent on betraying the organization then I shall gladly let you at least take one out without wasting energy."_

 _I close my eyes as I readied myself for the end to come, this pain to finally go away forever and let the keyblade end everything right on the spot. Just as I was about to force him to do it, he suddenly de-summons his Kingdom Key (He didn't want to show her he can use two keyblades) and pulls me into a bone crushing hug. "I can't do it... I just can't..." he mutters into my ear as he pulls me closer. Before I could say anything I could feel my eye lids go heavy. The sleep spell. "I'm sorry Kairax... I didn't mean to hurt you..."_

 _(A/N: I don't remember if they have this spell in the second game XD I just love this spell so much in BBS.)_

::Present::

I walked into town at found myself infront of the train station. At the corner of my eye I saw a group making their way to the station from my left, and I noticed right then and there Roxas was among the the group. I quickly hid as best as I could inside the nearby tunnel, waiting nervously as I prayed that no one had caught sight of me and won't find me. I took a small peek, watching as they all happily enter together. 'I will save you Roxas... I swear..."

 _'I want to see him again..._

 _and yet... I'm scared... Some of these memories are fuzy..._

 _And there are those what are... just too sad to remember..._

 _++To Be Continued++_

 _Hey ladies~! And guys... This Haru Kazeyuki (or Haru Kaze if you guys still remember me from of of her MA chapters. And yes I exist for those that doesn't believe her.). I'm here to tell you that The Mercury Alchemist and Winds of hope will be postponed for a while. She's still in the hospital and she won't be able to post anything in her current condition. She asked me to post this for her since she's worried how you guys waited for a while on any updates on her fanfics. She was able to put up one-shots for you guys but recently it's been hard for her to focus on the screen properly without ignoring the pain she's going trough. I helped her make this since she loves Kingdom Hearts so much and is excited for the 3rd game. (Don't get me started on how much she cried at the trailer!)_

 _She constantly told me not to make anymore typos like I did in the past when helping her. XD Alright, she just wants you to know she's really happy for all the support you've all given her and hopes to recover soon from her hospital stay. It seems that there's been a problem regarding milk tea, so you can kinda say a ton of people have been going through some sort of food poisoning. She's been trying to bring this to life for ages so I hope you like this. She made this when she was 9 years old and has decided to bring it back up._


	2. II

_Sup guys! I'm back! As of today I am temporarily dropping all of my current fanfics for now to focus on this. The reason is for the friend I met in the hospital. I almost thought he was Roxas/Ven with how he had his hair, but after a long chat I found out he also likes Kingdom Hearts. Sadly he won't live long enough to see the third game and has been depressed about it since. So when I told him about Forgotten hearts, he immediately loved my idea and asked me many times about it. I even gave him a spoiler of how it all ends. Thanks to Haru, who was able to help me put this story up, and my new found friend inspired me on making this story come to life._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2 ~ Broken Hearts**_

I watched from a fair distance away as Roxas and his 'friends' have their usual bickers against another group who call themselves the Twilight Town Discipline Committee; the leader is Seifer, his three followers are Rai, Fuu, and Vivi. All four of them have been constantly causing trouble ever since I first began watching watching over Roxas, at the same time trying my best to drive any dusk nobodies away from him ask best as possible. If any go near him then someone from the organization will come after him.

Most especially Axel. "Are you fine this way Kairax?" I turn to the side to face Namine, wuo was standing right beside me watching Roxas like I am. "I've been trying to find a way to make him realize this isn't real... but for as long as I can remember," I dug into my pocket and brought out a seashell, "he's always wanted to make friends with them. He wanted a life just like this." Namine looks over at me in concern pointing out, "But he wanted you in it too... didn't he?" I close my eyes as I reminise on that day.

++Day 208++

 _"Roxas... what will you do once you get a heart?" I ask him as I took another bite of my sea-salt ice cream. Roxas hums at this before wrapping his arm around my shoulder, "Well... kissing you would be the first thing on my mind." I playfully slap him on the cheek, causing us both to laugh for a short brief moment. "I'm serious! Once we all get our hearts... we all have to go our separate ways..." I stare off at the sunset sadly as I leaned closer against Roxas. I was scared on what will happen once this is all over. "Actually," he spoke up, "I was actually thinking of staying here in Twilight Town. I get to make friends with those three... and hopefully you'd stay with me when that happens."_

 _To answer this, I give him a quick kiss on the cheek. He touches the spot and stares at me with wide eyes. "Does that answer your question?" I tease him. Roxas was still in shock, but quickly recovers and places his forehead against mine, staring into my eyes lovingly._

++Present++

"Hey! Hey back here!" I snap out of it in time to see a Dusk slipping past the group as it takes a camera away from them, Roxas not too far from it. I was about to run after him till Namine grabs a hold on me. "Wait! I have something to help you hide just incase anyone from the organization is there." She hands me a white coat, which almost reminded me of my original black coat. "Thanks Namine..." I said as I ran after Roxas and pull my new white coat on. I pulled my hood on and at the exact moment I did find a few dusks appeared ahead of me.

I summoned my keyblade and performed a strike raid, hitting all 5 of them at once and went past them as I did. My keyblade came back just when I entered through the hole in the wall heading towards the mansion. When I got there I saw Roxas was having a hard time fighting off just one single dusk, using a struggle weapon instead of his kingdom key. I charged to help him only for a samurai nobody to appear in front of me, it was the kind Roxas used to control up until he left the organization. "Get out of my way!" I dashed towards the nobody and slashed upwards, sending it up in the air and allowing me to make the first strike.

But before I could, the Nobody blocks my attack. We both ended up having a short aerial clash until we finally reached the ground. "Don't try and stop me!" I raised a hand as a ball of light (not fire!) forms. As soon as the Samurai Nobody was about to dodge, I shot the light aiming for it's chest, but I was only able to vaporize it's arm off. I readied myself again as the Nobody charges at me when, out of nowhere, a keyblade appears and destroys the Nobody. "Don't get carried away," a deep voice spoke up behind my back. I turn only to find that there was no one there.

"Who's there!?" I was shocked to hear Roxas' voice. I tried to hide, but because I was wearing white he caught sight of me without making an effort. Roxas runs up to me and points his keyblade at me, panting as he held the stolen camera in his other hand. "Who are you!? Are you the one that sent that thing!?" he demands. Silently, I turn to face his as tears began to pour from my eyes.

"You once taught me... that the keyblade is meant to be used to fight the heartless... And that our sole purpose was to regain our hearts..."  
"Keyblade...? So that's what this is... Hold on! Who are you!?"  
"Now I see that it is much more than that... We lost a friend because of them... I want to make sure I won't lose another most precious to me... That is why I'll You have much to remember. Farewell... Roxas."

I turn to leave only to be hugged from behind, trapping me in his arms. "What are you doing?" I ask him, trying my best to sound as emotionless as possible in order to hide the pain in my voice. "I know you... you can't hide from me forever... I just need to remember your name..." Roxas hugs me closer to him. "I can't tell you... not the way you are," I tell him in a hushed tone, my emotions threatening to pour out the longer I stay here. He begs even further, "Please... I need to know you're not just a dream..." It hurts so much. Is this what pain feels like when you are torn in leaving the one you love?

"I want to tell you I'm not," I force myself out of his arms. "But as long as you stay in the dream I can never tell you whether I am real or not. You need to figure it out by yourself from this point on." I walk away in time as Roxas felt dizzy, the outer interference from the computer is probably effecting him again like it has always done. I stop to look over my shoulder to see him collapse to the ground, reaching out to me as he tries to stay awake. I utter a name before he completely blacks out on the spot. "Your presence has left a big impact on him," a voice spoke up.

"To think you would go as far as follow me... how much did you see DiZ?" I ask the man as I felt me key blade automatically appear in my hand. I met him the same time I met Naminé, and when I first saw him I felt so much hate towards him the moment he appeared. He smirks and said, "Enough. Sora's memories are returning much faster than I had intended. If I hadn't allowed you in, the results wouldn't be as astounding as they are now." "Glad to know," I tell him sarcastically as I walk past him, intentionally bumping into him and glaring up at the man.

Just when I was about to leave, DiZ told me one thing that made me stop, "Hearts are really are a fragile thing. Especially for a nobody like you." I thew my key blade at him in rage. "Enough with that! Nobodies can feel! We may not have a heart... but I've seen it for myself! We don't need a heart to feel...! Our memories are what make us feel!" I declare as I summoned my keyblade back in my hand and prepared myself to charge at him. I've had enough of this guy. He maybe trying to 'help' Roxas, but he was the one who kidnapped him and forced him... to forget everything.

"Interesting... I haven't seen anyone confront me like that for almost a year now... tell me, what is your true name? I know that heart fragment inside you has a tiny bit of memory of your previous life."  
"My... true name?"  
"Come now! You mean to tell me you haven't the slightest idea of who you once were? I found it hard to believe seeing as you both are still together even in this life."  
"Of course I know what my name is! It's... it's... Huh? I just told Riku my name... Why?"

I look down my hand in confusion as I tried to remember her name, my original name before I was named Kairax. "I see... so she's slipping away..." Diz mutters. He walks past me as I stood in place, lost and confused at what's happening to me. I snap out of it and turn to face him, "Hold on! I'm not finished with you!" I watch as he steps into a dark corridor, smirking at my reaction. "Ah! But I am with you," I sneer at his mockery, charging at him and swung my keyblade at him. When I though I hit him, all I did was cut through the remaining remnants of darkness left behind. "Why... What's happening to me...?"

Roxas showed the photos to his friends and proved their innocence to the town, not only that, the word itself magically came back. But as the others were talking over about the events that transpire, Roxas caught something suspicious at a certain photo and spotted someone oddly familiar. It was the girl from before. He held it in his hands as his eyes were glues to the small image of the girl, who was watching him a fair distance away but was still caught on camera. "Who are you...?" he mutters, secretly tucking the photo away in his pocket.

++Two Days Later++

I sat on top of the tower alone as I gaze at the all too familiar sunset, holding my sea-salt ice cream in hand and sigh in boredom. I brought my legs up and hug them close to my chest, muttering to myself, "To think only one would be left to continue this small routine... It was just the four of us... I wonder it it's possible to turn back time so that we can all be together again..."

 _As all four of us sat there watching the sunset as we've always done, Axel starts to laugh a bit out of no where. "Hey... what's so funny?" I ask, confused at his sudden out burst. "C'mon! Don't tell me you forgot already? Or was that zombie mind of yours too blank to pay attention," he teases me with a smirk. I pout and cross my arms with a scowl in my face. "You gotta at least remember THAT," Axel winks at Roxas, who was just as confused as me until he mouths 'Oh' in response. Xion picks up on this and starts to giggle. "Aw c'mon you guys! I was only like that for about 5 days," I frowned even more at their reactions._

 _"Lighten up Axel! She is younger than we are," she teases, her words aiming directly at me. I playfully shove her as she shoves me back. Axel gives in,"Alright already! I'll just repeat the same thing I said to Roxas as he said to Xion."_

 _"Hey, Kairax. Bet you don't know why the sunsets red. You see, light is made of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest."_

 _I gaze at the sun more intently, sinking in his words. "I think I've heard that before... I wish I can remember," I sigh in defeat and brought my knee's close to my chest. Roxas puts his hand over my shoulder and squeezes it reassuringly, "Don't be upset Kairax. I don't really remember much of my first few days either." Axel snakes his arm around his head and playfully ruffles hair. "At least she didn't act like a zombie unlike you two!" he jokes. Xion and I laugh at them as Roxas retaliates and tries to get revenge on the older man. "Say Xion," I spoke up. "Do you sometimes remember who you were..? You know, before becoming a nobody."_

 _She hums before answering, "Sometimes... but it's all a bit hazy. But I'm actually glad to be a nobody. If not, I wouldn't have met you guys and have three best friends to cherish."_

Till this day, I still remember the look in her eyes when she told me that. I can see emotion in them, happiness mixed with content. I never believed Xemnas nor any other organization member when they told me nobodies have no feelings, that I wouldn't know since I still at least have a fragment of a heart left within me. They 'pretend' to have feelings. In reality, they actually do. They just don't realize it since they're too focused on getting their hearts back. "What is a heart...? What's so good about it... if all it brings so much sorrow..." I cried silently, forgetting all about my ice cream and letting it slip out of my hand.

Images were appearing in my head. They were all to hazy for me to properly see.

 _"Hey A_! I found this seashell! Come and see!" a boy with spiky brown hair calls over, holding up two pieces of a broken seashell up in the air._

I snap out of it and quickly dug into my pocket. bringing out half of a broken seashell I've been holding onto ever since I was first born. I never understood what kind of seashell it was. I think was a shell that was in a shape of a star before it was cracked in half, but I'm not really sure what kind of shells are out there. Xion was the only one who ever brought them after a few certain missions. "I wonder... what he's doing now?" I wonder out loud. Then something happened, when spotted a pigeon flying away I was shocked to the bone to see it freeze up in the air. I jump to my feet crying out, "Roxas!"

Namine told me that the system would freeze if ever there's an unknown intruder. And there's only one person I know who gets these kind of retrieval mission. As I dashed off, I prayed in the back of my mind, 'Please Axel... don't do it! You know what will happen if he comes back to the organization! He doesn't even remember us!' I pulled my hood on and disappeared down the steps of the tower. (A/N: I honestly do not know how in the heck they get up there in the first place!)

Kairax arrived just in time to save Roxas from Axel, jumping at him from behind and reluctantly knocking him to the ground. "Kairax!? What are you doing here!?" he asks in disbelief at the sudden appearance of his friend. She stood protectively in front of Roxas as he steps back a bit in shock. "I can't let you do that Axel! You and I know what will happen if Roxas goes back! You have to let him go!" she exclaims and summons her keyblade. "You know I can't do that! If I go back you know what will happen! And if they found out you're here as well... you both will be destroyed!" he warns.

She stood her ground and said, "Don't hold back Axel..." This was too familiar to him, he can't figure out where he heard that before, but the way she looked at him someone burnt his chest. An image of a girl with black hair appeared in Kairax's place, giving hi the same look she was giving him.

I watch as he summons him chakrams, fire already blazing from them as he lifts his head up with anger and pain filled in his eyes. "Roxas! Go and take cover! I'll handle Axel from here," I ordered. "But what about-" I interrupted him, "Just go! I'll be fine! I fought this guy before... but this time it's the real thing.' Reluctantly, Roxas jumps off the stage when I lift one part of the barrier with all my might. "Fine then! But just remember this! No matter how many times you run, I'll always be there to bring you back! And that's a promise!" It hurt so much to see him like this.

He charges at me and slashes both of his chakrams at me, leaving a long trail of fire behind on the ground. I dodged and effortlessly flipped around to send a few hits on his back. He twirls around and tosses one of his blazing chakrams at me. I barely dodge it in time as it cuts a small piece of my hair off. As I stepped to the side, my vision was blurred as a ball of fire appear coming right at me. I block it only for my keyblade to be knocked out of my hands. I step back as more came in afterwards.

I summon a ball of light in my hand and lift it up in the air as it brightens even more, blinding Axel and giving me the chance to summon my keyblade back. I held it in my hand and used raid on him, watching as it hits him on the side. After I closed the light in my hand, Axel recovers quickly and lungs at me. I got my keyblade back just in time as he was about to strike me down, blocking both chakrams as he pushes harder against me. I glare up at his eyes sadly as he grits his teeth and tries to put as much force as possible.

We finally pull back and leapt back towards each other as our weapons clashed. I knew I had to finish this, to save us both from further pain. I swiftly kick him off his feet and summoned a ball of light in my hand. I tearfully apologize, "I'm sorry..." I blast him in the chest. The light fades as he lies on the ground unconscious. I step back and turn to make my leave when a hand suddenly grabs me by the ankle. "If you do this... there's no stopping them..." Axels mutters before losing his grip and finally passing out.

"I know... but I must finish what I should have done ages ago..." I tell him and walk off. The world resets around me as I was teleported away in time when Roxas runs up to catch me, only to stand in his original spot and be declared as the new struggle champion. "Thank you for taking care of Axel," I shift to see Namine sadly looking down at Roxas, who was looking around in confusion. "I didn't do it for you," I walk past her and tug my hood to hide my face, "I only did it so I can prevent the organization from getting him back. I don't know what you both plan to do with us, but I can assure you this, I will get him out of this illusion."

||Twilight Tower||

I sat back in my original spot and stared off at the sunset, this time eating my ice cream like I was suppose to earlier. Even though I was all by myself, I could still feel as if my friends were with me. All four of us staring off into the sunset and eating ice cream like we've always down. In reality, I was still alone. "Things will be different... I'm sure of it," I mutter to myself in false hop, taking one final bite only to read 'Winner' on my stick. I chuckle at this and place in down beside me, "Well what do ya know... it really does exist."

++The Next Day++

(A/N: I didn't exactly memorize how the days went but I'm trying my best to do everything I remember by memory. And I am not relying on walkthroughs!)

I stood guard in front of the hang out Roxas and his friends usually stay at whenever they want to talk about something, which is most probably that summer homework I've been hearing about lately. I sigh and took a small peek through the cloth, "What's so important about this homework of theirs anyway...?"All I hear about from them is how to spend their summer vacation, going to the beach next year, and not to mention that other stuff with homework. If this is the life of a regular person, I think I'd rather stay a nobody and fight heartless.

 **Me: Don't we all? XD**

"Let's go then! Maybe we can get some work done early!" I jump back and panic, quickly jumping behind the nearest object that I could spot to hide in at the exact same moment they came out. I had no choice but to hide behind the side of a dumpster. "This is gonna be a cinch! 7 wonders here we comes!" the first to call out was most probably Pence. "As long as we don't forget about the homework on the way," Olette comments. I sigh in relief, "Great... and for a second I thought I would get caught while on duty... At least Namine or Diz is out there to prevent that..."

Just when I thought I was safe, I felt someone tap my shoulder. I freeze, slowly turning around and almost wanted to pass out on the spot to see none other than Roxas. "Why are you..." I gap to see his friends frozen in time, and what's worse is that they weren't going to start moving again any time soon. "Can we um... talk?" he asks me. I had no other choice but to accept. Either way, there was nothing I can do except agree and let him say what he wants. We took a short walk around town that's close enough when time is restored in the virtual world, meaning I was left alone with Roxas until it's done.

There was a weird tense awkward silence between us, neither of us had a single idea what to say to one another. Its been so long since Roxas and I properly had a chat with one another, and this time he had no clear memories of who I am and our past relationship. I can tell he's regaining bits and pieces of his memories, but there isn't enough for him to remember me. "I know you've been following me for a while... why?" that question struck me hard. I stop and stare up at the setting sun, asking, "Do you remember someone by the name Kairax?"

He crosses his arms, thinks hard on the name, then looks up and shakes his head. This is what I feared. That's what I get for getting my hopes up after hearing him call out my name the first time I visited this virtual world. "How about... getting your first kiss?" I ask him nervously, turning away so that he won't see the blush creeping up my face. With no reply from his, I frown and thought in disappointment, 'He could have at least remembered that...' "Listen I want to thank you," Roxas extends a hand towards me, "for saving my neck back there during the tournament. I almost thought I'd lose it back there if you didn't come and save me."

When I came to save him during the struggle tournament, I remember seeing Roxas clutch his head as Axel yells at him about something. I didn't really pay much attention at the time on what it was Axel was doing, all that mattered was preventing Roxas from falling under the hands of the organization. I took his hand and shook it, still feeling slightly awkward around him. I know this is Roxas and I know that his emoroes have just been manipulated by Namone, but it felt strange. It was like as if I wasn't talking to Roxas at all, more like a complete stranger.

"Is that all you wanted to say?" I question him, feeling my chest ache the longer I stayed with him. Roxas spoke up, "It's weird... I've been freaking out every time everything freezes around me... but with you I feel so... calm. And I feel like as if I know you from somewhere." I look at him with hope in my eyes but gaze down at the ground, sad to know he still has no clear memories of ever encountering me these past few days. It's like all of those encounters were nothing to him. I almost gave up when he suddenly tells me, "I do have these dreams of this girl."

Roxas puts his hand to his chest and closes his eyes, looking like as if he was trying to picture it.

"The one thing that I mostly remember is her pink hair and her smile...She always smile at me, saying my name and yet... I don't even know hers. She's real, I know it! But whenever a clear memory of who she is appears in my mind, it's like as if something is trying to erase it. All I know remember is how much shenloved watching the sunset."

Underneath my hood, a aingke tear came out as I summoned my keyblade. He steps back a bitnuntil I lift the hanfle up at him. "You want to remember her right? Touch thus and you'll see a clear image of hee," I lie as I held it up in the air.

As Roxas slowly takes the handle in his hamd, one tiny contact with the weapon sent an instant vision in his head. It was fuzzy, but he saw a beach and on it were two children, a boy will spikeu brown hair and had a huge grin on his face while the other was a girl beside the boy. She had short blue hair and looked the same as the girl in Roxas's dreams. He looks at the hooded girl but found his world shifting all around him, the stranger tking of her hood to reveals to be the girl of his dreams.

"I'll waot for you every step of the way. Roxas."

++Final Day++

Things began to change, I could feel it. As I walked towards the 'secret hang out' I was surprised to see Axel again, but this time he was frozen in place before he could do anything. **"Ka** **irax..! It is time! Go to the mansion, Roxas will be there waiting for you,"** I was slightly caught off guard to hear DiZ's voice in my head, but when I spot Roxas running off I immediately bolted after him. Looking back one last time, my eyes drifted away from Axel before continuing to follow after Roxas.

There was this weird feeling this will be the last time I'll ever see Axel again, not as myself but as someone else. As I ran after Roxas, five dusk Nobodies appeared in front of me, blocking my view of the body as he continues to run off from sight. I took the out one by one, but the more I destroyed (A/N: I am not using killed -_-) them the more that kept coming. "I've had enough of this!" I was about to take them on until the very same key blade as before is thrown in the air and hit all five of them at one.

The key blade, however, fell to the ground. I walked over to it and nervously picked it up. It felt strange, this key blade felt so familiar to me and this is the first I've ever seen it in my life. "Starlight..." the name escaped my lip as I held it closer to me. "That's right... this was her keyblade... MY keyblade..." I lift redemption up and compared the two, neither weapons leaving my hand. I watch in surprise as Starlight began to reshape itself to form the same shape as redemption, new names emerging from my head; Echo of memories and Unbreakable Promise.

 _'Use my key blade... it'll guide you to where you want to be... You will know where to go as your heart is connected to his...'_

I almost thought it was Xion, but then I realized something off about her voice. "Was that...?" I had no time to ponder over this as more nobodies began to appear around me. With the smallest opening of escape left, I ran past them as more began to appear.

||The Mansion||

I ran through the forest and cut down as many nobodies as I could with both of my keyblades to fend them off. The numbers grew to the point where I was at my limit, I've never fought so many before on the very same day. I spot Riku holding them off as he protects the gate of the mansion. "Riku!" I call out after hitting one last dusk, running up to where he was as fast as my legs could carry me. More nobodies appeared again the moment I got to Riku. "Get inside! I'll take of these guys. Roxas is waiting for you," he tells me as he get's into his stance.

I was nervous at first to leave him behind, but I can't stop now. Not when I'm so close... I lower my head and ran past him, entering the through the gates as they shut themselves behind my back.

Kairax made her way inside and is caught off guard when heartless began to appear one by one. There weren't alot of them, but she was cautious now that she knows that there are still enemies and she has to keep her guard up at all times. She followed the same steps as Roxas, finding many chests already open and switches already switched on. When she entered the library, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going as she fell down the hole of the secret passage way. "Ow..." she groans, getting up and rubbing her right arm in pain.

She saw immediately spots an opening. As she steps through, she wasn't surprised to remnants of fire on the ground. She knew Axel would be here, and she also knew Roxas was able to defeat him. Without last glance, she continues to follow the path she knew she has to follow in order to meet Roxas. But as Kairax got closer, she found a room full of smashed up computers, two readable screens reading Sora and... "Akari," she read out loud. She put her hand close to her chest and continued on.

Not long after, she came across two container pods in her path and immediately knew who were the two inside the. "Donald! Goofy!" she gasps in shock. Both were in deep slumber, neither of them heard her cries as she runs to them and tries to pry the pods open. It was no use. She finally stopped when a light appeared at the corner of her eyes. Leaving the two familiar friends behind, she walked down the hall until she found herself in a large white room, two larger pods inside and at the center on the ground was the very person she was looking for.

At first she was happy to see he was still in one piece, but Kairax stopped herself. 'What if he doesn't remember me yet...?' she wonders nervously, too nervous to speak. She finally gained the nerve to walk up to him and put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing it the same way he used to do whenever she was down or upset. He looks over his shoulder, tears running down his face as his eyes widen. Kairax, feeling awkwardly shy, waves at the boy and greets him, "It's good to see you again Roxas..."

When she thought he was going to ask again who she was, she was soon trapped in his arms and he hugs the girl close to him for dear life. "Kairax..." he whispers her name into her ear. Shocked, Kairax hugs him back as tears of her own began to roll down her cheeks. As they both pull away, the one separated lovers were together again. "I missed you..." she smiles, still crying as happiness swept over. He smiles back and kisses her forehead, "And I missed you..." She had been waiting for this day, the day he would finally remember everything, remember who she was before he left the organization and what she is to him now.

 **Me: Now I know what you fan girls are thinking. You want to be in Kairax's place, don't you? :3 It's fine! I've done that before with other fanfics.**

She wipes her tears away saying, "I thought you'd never remember. I almost thought I lost you..." He knew he had put her through so much to get to where they are now. Roxas thought that if he left and didn't tell Kairax what was going on, she'd be safe from harms way while he was on the run trying to destroy Kingdom Hearts. But the day they had crossed paths, he never thought his leave would hurt and confuse her so much. "Remember this?" he abruptly asks, taking out half of a sea shell from his pocket.

Kairax was surprised to see this and takes hers out, both of them putting the halves together to reveal a star shaped sea shell. Just as Kairax always thought it would be. "We've both held onto our halves even though we became nobodies... we almost forgotten each other... but we still found our way back to one another. I just never realized it when I saw you holding your shell that day." The memory of when Sora and Akari first found the shell reflected on both of them. He turns, making Kairax slowly follow his gaze.

One pod had Sora sleeping inside it, but what she didn't expect was to see who was inside the pod beside him. She silently lets Roxas go, stepping bit by bit towards her missing half. "Akari..." Her true self, the part of her that's been missing. Kairax puts her hand on the glass only to pull away in shock. "What's wrong?" Roxas hold her hand in concern.

"She... her heart has been fractured... There's barely anything there... Roxas, once I return to her she'll only have a small piece of her heart. That means she'll barely have any memories of Sora. I won't remember you even after we become whole..."

"Hey," Roxas pulls me into another hug, "as long as Sora's with Akari that means I'll always be with you. Like Namine told me, 'we may not recognize each other but we'll meet again.'" Our bodies began to disappear. As I turn to face Roxas, we both look up at the two pod with out in our eyes. "You're lucky... looks like my summer vacation is over," Roxas mutters as a small smile crosses his lips. We both face one another and pull each other into one final kiss before completely fading away.

A girl with shoulder length blue hair turns to face the boy, putting her hands behind her back as she smiles at him. "Sora...! _It's time to wake up sleepy head! How long are you gonna slack off? You know Kairi will scowl you for being late!"_ a familiar voice teases. Sora reaches out to the figure, uttering a name, "Akari...?" As light blinds his vision, Sora wakes up to see both Donald and Goofy in front of his pod waiting for the boy to wake up. "Sora wake up!" Donald yells impatiently. Sora steps out and yawns, rubbing the back of his head then looks around the room.

The two laugh Sora steps out and yawns, causing him to smile and jump at the two. "Donald! Goofy!":Their reunuon was cut short when Jimeney appears on Sora's shoulder, yawing, "That was some nap!" "You mean, we were asleep?" Sora asks, watching as the cricket jumps down to the floor. Jimeney scratches his head and answers, "I guess we musta been, or I don't think we'd be this drowsy."

"Where do you think we went to sleep?" Goofy wonders as looks around the room as well. None of them had a clue on how they got there. "Uhh..." everyone crosses their arms and tried to recall of what they last remembered.

"Let's see... we defeated Ansem..."

"Yep."

"restored peave to the world... found Kairi... Oh yeaj, and then we went to look for Riku. I think that's right so far?"

"Then what?" Donald asks,still lost. "What does your journal say, Jiminey?" Goofy asks their companion curuously. He takes out his tiny journal and is shocked at the contents. Jiminey stares at the page, answering them, "Gee, there's only one sentence.. Thank Namine... Hm... I wonder who that is?" All of them tried to remember who this Namine person was. Sora crosses his arms then thinks for a minute until his eyes widen in realization and quickly asks the two, "Did you guys see Akari!? I think a saw her a minute ago!"

The two were shocked at his question, looking at one another in concern before turning back at the boy with sad looks in their eyes. "Sora... she's gone, remember?" Donald reminds him, choking on his own words as he said that. Goofy sadly states, "She's been gone ever since the fight." That reminder struck Sora hard, he remembered that day all too well.

 _Akari collapses as Sora runs up to her and quickly catches her before she could hit the ground. "Akari...? Akari wake up... please..." he begs, hugging the girl in his arms as he waited for her response. Slowly, she opens her eyes and smiles when she see's Sora. "Sora... you're alive... thank goodness..." the girl sighs in relief as she leans against Sora's body, a content smile forming in her lips as lights began to slowly rise from her body. "Akari!? What's happening to you!?" Sora asks as he pulls back to see her disappearing from his arms._

 _She puts a hand on his cheek, crying as she tearfully tells him, "I always thought we'd be together forever... but I guess my this is the end of the road for me... you, Kairi, Riku... all three of you will go home together..." He looks down at her in disbelief and nervously asks her, "What are you talking about? I promised all four of us will go back to the islands together! You even did our old promise ritual, remember?" Akari just shakes her head. Sora never felt such pain in his heart before, the way she was talking to him it's like as if she was saying good bye._

 _"I never belonged to the island to begin with... besides," she looks over at the three and continues, "you've made so many friends throughout our journey... Not only Donald and Goofy... but others from different worlds... I know those bonds will help become stronger... That's why I know with all my heart you'll be able to save Riku... and all worlds..."  
_

 _"Hey c'mon...! You sound like as if you're saying goodbye."  
"Sora, I know you'll be able to bring them home... Riku hasn't fallen into the darkness... you can still save him... I know you can..."_

 _He watches as her body disappears into a body of light, star like lights rising into the sky as shattered pieces of her heart float away. Sora reaches out as he cries, "Akari! Don't leave me! Akari!"_

Sora takes out his seashell half from his pocket and stares down at it, memories of his journey with her all coming at him all at once. Donald and Goofy put a hand on his shoulders reassuringly, silently waiting for their friend to recover. Both knew how guilty he was about her sudden death, but they have told him many times she was only trying to protect him and Kairi from the heartless. Still, this did not help him recover. He was told his job wasn't only to seal the keyholes, but to protect the Purest of all Hearts, which he had failed the day he lost her.

"Why don't we look around to see where we are," Jimney suggest just to break the ice. Sora smiled at his friends and nodded, looking back at his pod and was confusing at the other one beside it. Whoever was inside it was long gone. On the outside of the mansion, Xemnas smirks as he places his hand over the shoulder of a shorter organization member, who just stood there silently with their hood on. "A small set back... but I think this one will do just fine," Xemnas pats the strangers shoulder and disappears in time as Sora, Donald, and Goofy venture out of the mansion.

A few strands of blue hair came out as the wind brushes by, a name uttered by the persons' lips, "Sora..."

* * *

 _*~After Story~*  
(Me: I'd play the At Dusk, I will always think of you theme. You'll need it for this)  
_

 _Kairax smiled happily as she watched the sunset, together with her two best friends and secret lover, eating sea salt ice cream like they've always done since they first came to the usual spot as a group. Xion stands up and says something to the group, only Kairax to acknowledge her out of the three. She waves good bye and walks off. Behind their turned backs, Xion's body begins to fade away. Stopping in her tracks, Xion says something inaudible to the group then completely fades away before Kairax had the chance to look back._

 _Roxas looks over at the girl in concern when she makes a move to stand up. Unsure of what just happened, Kairax slowly sits back down and silently reassures Roxas. Axel was the next one to leave not long after. He salutes the two and stands up, but not before ruffling the pinkette's hair and pats Roxas on the shoulder, silently whispering something to the boy. Roxas turns pink a bit and opens his mouth to answer Axel but keeps quiet as the older teen leaves the two behind. "Hey Roxas?" Kairax spoke up. "What is it Kai?" he asks her, calling her by the nickname he gave her._

 _"If I ever forget you someday... you'll still stay by my side, right? Even if I lose memories of our time together, and it will take time to get them back, you'll be the one to help me make new ones. Right Roxy?"  
_

 _Without the need of answering her through words, Roxas puts his hand on her cheek and pulls her into a kiss. When they pull away to breathe Roxas burst out laughing as Kairax breathlessly stares at the boy with wide eyes, taken aback by the unexpected kiss. Both of them lean in and let their foreheads touch. "I'll miss you..." Kairax said in tears, her body now beginning to disappear. Roxas reassures her, "What do you mean? I'll always be by your side no matter what... You're my light Kairax." As a single tear falls down her cheek, Kairax tells something to Roxas as her body began to disappear from her legs all the way up to her shoulders.  
_

 _"I will always think of you," Roxas tells her, bringing the girl into his arms. She didn't want to leave him. It was painful enough when he left her, and Kairax didn't want Roxas to go through the same pain she had felt the day. Right as the light reaches up to her eyes, she said her feelings one last time to him, "I love you... I will always love you... Roxas..." Now Roxas was alone. He was sad at first, but as he watched the remaining lights rise up in the orange sky above him, he couldn't help himself from smiling. "Protect her... Sora," he said out loud._

* * *

 **To Be Continued**

 ** _Well I tried too keep some originality in this... anyway I am serious about putting the others on hold. Okay mayne I'll put up the next chapters somewhere this week but thats it. So I hope you enjoyed, pls R &R and I'll see you on the next chapter!_**

Update:  
I just had to add the after story, it just felt so right. :')


	3. III

_Ok so warning, this will be a little off from the actual storyline of the game. I just tried to fit Akari in this as best as I could XD_

* * *

 ** _III ~ Reunited Hearts_**

Even though the world was so new to him, Sora couldn't help but feel a bit nostalgic when he, Donald, and Goofy venture out into the deeper part of town. Still, he couldn't get his mind off the second pod that was beside his. He felt as if there was someone there he was expecting to meet, it's just he had no clue as to who that person was. "Sora? What's wrong?" Goofy asks, concerned at Sora's odd silence. "Huh? It's nothing... just thinking about Akari again..." Sora tells them truth fully, staring back down at the seashell in his hand.

Donald walks over and puts a hand over the seashell. "Sora... We've told you before she saved us," he reassures the boy. Sora shakes his head and pulls away, saying, "But I was supposed to protect her...! It was my duty as the Keyblade's chosen to protect the Purest of all Hearts! I failed her... And I'll never see her again..." Donald and Goofy just silently stood by his side, at a loss on what to say that will make him take his mind off Akari. They both were just as upset over what happened to Akari, but Sora was taking it in harder than the both of them.

She knew the dangers of protecting Sora when he was a heartless, but she reassured all of them she was going to handle the heartless. "Look," it was the final straw for Donald, "you did your job! And she wanted to be the one to protect you for once! Don't let her sacrifice be in vain if all your gonna do is mope around!" He wanted to listen to Donald. He really wanted to! But no matter how hard he tried, Akari's face would always pop up at the back of his mind. Goofy intervenes by telling Sora in a much calmer manner, "What Donald is trying to say you can't let the past get ya. Akari only did what she did to protect you."

He bit his lip and walks past them. As he continued on, her face continued to haunt his mind. 'Sora!' a familiar voice calls out. Sora quickly turns around much to Donald and Goofy's surprise. "Akari...?" he mutters out loud.

 _Somewhere else..._

Inside the Castle that never was, Saix walks through the soundless prison in silence and makes his way to one certain cell. He stops in front of the cage door, glaring as the person inside sits on the ground lifeless. "Such a waste of time... I don't know why Xemnas would waste his time with such an empty shell," Saix said, opening the doors and summoning two beserkers by his side as a counter measure. The prisoner may seem helpless but he didn't heed Xemnas' warning for nothing. Just as the two beserkers were about to life the prisoner up, a keyblade appears and instantly destroys the two in one instant.

It appears in the hand of the prisoner and reveals to be the starlight keyblade. Saix scoff at this, "Even with a shard of heart the keyblade still follows the calls of its master... fascinating... I wonder what his motives are to let the shell go away after going through the trouble capturing her. What a waste of energy."

 _Twilight Town..._

Axel, Namine, and Riku (Me: If you know the game you can see why I outright said his name) gathered together at the spot where they can see the so-called mysterious Ghost pass by as it heads towards the Mysterious tower. Namine stares down at her sketch pad, a drawing of Sora and Roxas holding hands in one page, then is flips to the next one to reveal Kairax standing next to a blue haired girl beside her. "I'm sorry you two... I was unable to keep her safe," Namine apologizes. Riku reassures her in the voice of Ansem (seeker of darkness), "It was not your fault. None of us had expected the organization to come in like that."

Akari was meant to wake up, but before she could, Xemnas had appeared and took her away. "So what will you do now Axel?" the girl asks the man as he stood there staring at the direction the train disappeared to. He sighs and ruffles his spiky red hair, "Well for one thing I'm gonna get creamed once I get back... If Kairax- I mean, Akari is really with Xemnas then there's a tiny chance we'll ever see her again in one piece. And if she is the Purest of all Hearts, there's no way she can get away that easily..."

Riku made no other choice but to entrust Namine's safety to Axel. After all that's happened, it would be surprising if Axel decided to go back to the organization just like that. "Can I trust you Axel?" Riku asks him one last time before the Corridor began to close. Axel simply gives him a short salute then steps into the Dark Corridor after Namine ran in. "Akari... I hope you're okay... for Sora's sake," Riku mutters as he watches the portal close.

 _The Mysterious Tower..._

After saying their farewells to the three (Hayner, Pence. and Olette) back in Twilight Town, they took the mysterious train to their next location, and that's to a very strange tower waiting for them. When they first arrived, Sora was the first to take notice of the disappearance of the train once they stepped off of it. "Well there goes our rides..." As they walk up the tower, they notice someone trying to peek in through the front door. They all decided to confront whoever it was. "What's going on?" Donald asks.

The stranger chuckles and cluelessly tells the group, "I sent some of my lackeys inside to see if the master of this here tower is as big and tough as they say. Word is, he's a real powerful sorcerer, which would make him the perfect bodyguard for me." The poor guy was so clueless he didn't have a clue to who he was ranting to. "See," he goes on, "it don't matter how tough he is- once he's a heartless, he'll do as I say!" "A heartless!?" Donald exclaims as they all got in a defensive stance.

He just kept ranting on and on about what he was doing, "That's right. They're those things that come outta the darkness in folks' hearts. Why, with all those heartless at her side, my dear friend Maleficent is gonna conquer everything!" That made the three stand up straight and look at one another with confused looks. "And since I have a debt to pay," he tells them more about his plans, "I'm goin' 'round to a bunch of different worlds and buildin' an army of Heartless, special for her." The stranger waves them off after having enough of telling them all of his plans. "Oh why am I talkin' to you pipsqueaks anyway? Go on, scram! I'm behind schedule as it is."

Goofy decides to make a suggestion, "You oughta find something nicer to do." "Says who? Wha... AAAH! It's you!" Pete yells in anger, turning around to confront them only to jaw drop in shock. "Pete!" Donald and Goofy exclaim with wide eyes. "What are you two nimrods doin' here!?" Pete demands. "What are YOU doing here!?" Donald yells back. "You know him?" Sora asks, confused at what's going on. Goofy nods, explaining, "We sure do! Pete's been causin' trouble for ages! His majesty banished him to another dimension a long time ago. I wonder how he escaped."

Pete cackles at their reactions. "You wanna know how, eh? Well, Maleficent busted me out, that's how! Now, your world- no, no, no, all worlds- are gonna belong to yours truly. Cause Maleficent is gonna help ma conquer 'em." "Maleficent, huh?" all three of them began to laugh at this. "What are you laughing at!? Why, Maleficient's power is so great that-" Sora bluntly interrupts Pete, "She's toast." "Huh!?" "Sorry, but Maleficent can't help ya now," Goofy said. "Whaddya mean!?" Pete asks the group, lost at what's going on.

Finally, it dawned on him, "You! So you're the ones that did it!" Sora puts his hands behind his head and says proudly, "Well... we mighta had something to do with it."Errrrr... Heartless squad! Round up!" A few shadow heartless began to appear on Pete's orders, but they were instantly taken out without any effort.

"No one! And I mean no one, messes with the might Pete!"  
"So 'mighty' Pete, who lives in this tower anyway?"  
"Oh, ya don't know eh? Well it's old Yen Sid. 'Course he's probably a heartless by now!"

Donald is taken aback at this and yells, "Master Yen Sid lives here!?" Not wasting a second, Donald runs up the steps and enters, leaving the tree behind to watch as he does so. Goofy takes it upon himself to enlighten Sora, "Master Yen Sid is the king's teacher!" "Wow! Sounds powerful!" the boy comments, both of them dashing off after their friend and completely forgetting Pete in the process. Pete fumes at the trio and yells, "Darn it! If only Maleficent took care of that pure hearts brat we should have won by now!"

Sora stops himself from going inside. "Sora don't- Wah!" Goofy falls back in surprise when Sora suddenly jumps at Pete with his keyblade out. Pete shuts his eyes, awaiting for the keyblade to strike only for it to be inches away from his face. He opens one eye and fell into the water by accident, relieved to be spared by the wrath of the keyblade master. Donald hears the commotion from inside, looking up at the stairs one last time before reluctantly going back outside to see what's going on.

"What gives you the right to talk about Akari like that!? She's already gone... Her heart was destroyed a long time ago! Isn't that enough!?" Sora yells at him in a shaky breathe, his grip on his Kingdom Key weakening. He fell on his knees as Donald and Goofy runs up to aid their friend. "Why don't you buzz off already Pete!" Donald yells, helping Sora up on his feet. "Yeah! Akari may be gone, but you don't have ta go 'round talkin' nonsense!" Goofy added just as upset as the others. Pete steps out of the pond drenched wet, gawking at the trio weirdly then bursts out laughing, much to Sora's confusion.

The large cat (me: It took me forever to remember what he is!) wipes a single tear and mocks them, "You runts really don't know do ya? I thought since one of you is the babysitter, you knew all about the prophecy. Man this sure makes my day! Hahaha!" "Prophecy? What prophecy?" Goofy asks, Pete smirks and points up at the tower, "Can't tell ya! You need to ask the old coot upstairs! If he isn't a heartless yet." Sora grips his keyblade one last time then desummons it, running inside in order to avoid further confrontation.

He knew if he stayed there any longer, he might take his anger out on Pete. And Sora didn't want to vent it out like that in a three ran back inside, all agreeing to check if Yen Sid was safe. During that time, heartless appeared on the way up, and this gave Sora the chance to take out his anger on the heartless before meeting Yen Sid. Every heartless that he destroyed, memories of Akari filled Sora's mind up until they arrived at the final part of the spiral stair case. "Heartless heartless heartless! I'm sick and tired of these things already!" yells a frustrated duck, zapping one final heartless.

"Do ya think master Yen Sid alright?" Goofy asks, staring at the final stair case nervously. "Of course he's okay! I hope..." Donald gulps. After fending off the remaining heartless, rushing up the stairs, they finally arrived to meet Yen Sid. Donald and Goofy were the first to go in, practically pushing Sora aside just to meet with the teacher of Mickey. Shrugging it off, Sora steps inside the room to see his two friends saluting and then bow. Sora looks down at them both in confusion, lost at what's going on and what he himself was supposed to do next.

"Master Yen Sid! It's an honor!" Donald greets formally. Sora, on the other hand, simply greets the old man sitting before them casually, "Hey there!" Both of them look up at Sora in shock. Donald scolds him, "Sora! Show some respect!" Yen Sid calms the two down and spoke up, "So, you are Sora. The next protector of the Purest of all hearts." Sora flinches at the familiar title, pain filling his pain as guilt struck in his eyes, all three of them watching the boy with sad eyes. Yen Sid decided to change to topic- "Now then, have you seen the king yet?"

 _Altar of Naught..._

Kingdom Hearts was reacting to their prisoners presence just as they had hoped it would, the problem was that its reaction wasn't as strong as Xemnas had hoped for. The remnant of Kingdom Hearts simply glowed even brighter for only a second once she was placed before it, but its light died not long after. Xemnas contemplates on the results, "The purest of hearts is indeed the key to controlling Kingdom Hearts... but with her incomplete heart it's meaningless... There has to be a faster way to bring the pieces back together."

Behind his turned back, Xigbar appears through a dark corridor and walks casually towards his leader. "So whatcha need from me? I'm pretty sure it has to be serious to call me during the middle of a mission," says the one eyed man, stopping in place after seeing who it was Xemnas was watching. Xemnas turns to face him and orders, "She'll be waking up soon now that Sora is awake. Their hearts are connect, and she knows she has to be with him. You will be the one to take care of her until then."

"What!? Why don't you let Saix do it?" Xigbar yells, throwing his arm up in the air with a displeased look.

"The Purest of all Hearts is in a dream-like state. As long as the shards of her heart isn't awaken, she'll continue to sleep until then. Either way, she won't be much of a fight if she doesn't even remember them nor remember her own name."  
"Yeah but... you're talking about letting her-"  
"That's all a part of the plan. If we want complete control of Kingdom Hearts, she'll need to be entirely whole in order to do so."

Deep in her slumber, she found herself floating in a cypher... lost in the pitch black darkness that surrounds her...

 _"You'll have to wake up soon..." a voice spoke up. She answers tiredly, "I can't... it feels so... empty..." "What does?" There was no answer. The voice sighs at this and presses, "You'll have to get up someday. He's waiting for you! You can't make him wait forever!" "Who is...?" asks the blue haired girl, now taking interest. "S-"_

"So...ra..." Xemnas and Xigar turn to face her, slightly taken aback to hear the name of the Keyblade master slip out of her own lips while still asleep. She shouldn't even know the name to begin with. "Interesting..." a small, yet eerie, smirk crosses Xemnas' lips. Something which Xigbar caught sight of at the corner of his eye. (Me: Haha! See what I did there? XD Lame but... okay moving on)

 _Back at the Mysterious Tower..._

There was so much to take in, King Mickey's fighting the heartless, Riku might me alright, Nobodies, organization XIII- so much has been going on during their one year slumber. 'If a nobody is born when a heartless is made...' Sora shook his head, not wanting to continue on the topic anymore. Yen Sid notices Sora's silence to the information and decided to inform them, "You did not destroy Akari if that's what you're thinking." All three of them gap at the master in pure shock, none of them had expected to hear this kind of information, especially Sora.

Yen Sid stood up from his seat, walks up toward star shaped and spots a certain star gleaming much brighter than the other stars around it. "When Ansem retrieved her heart," the old man spoke up, "he reminded you of what is to happen to Akari's empty vessel if the heart is removed by force." Sora takes it upon himself to recite the very same story he's heard many times, "If the Purest of hearts loses her light (heart) then the darkness shall take over her vessel and use it to purge every single world in darkness."

The wizard nods but finishes the story, "And it is the protectors' duty to prevent this. I see you still remember the tale." Sora scratches the back of his head, "Yeah... More than one person has told me that too many times to count. It's really hard not to forget it." "But wasn't it Akari's heart was-" Donald instantly slaps a hand over his friend's mouth as Goofy himself puts both of his hands over Donald's'. "I know very well of her hearts' destruction," Yen Sid spoke up. "I saw it happen myself from this very window. Her star glimmered and then shattered into pieces the moment Ansem saw you defeat the Purest of Darkness."

About one year ago, Akari had fought with Sora against her will when her heart was taken, allowing the darkness to take over and take control of her body. When Sora defeated her, Ansem destroyed her heart. None of them knew it was even possible to destroy a heart like that, but it happened right before their eyes and Akari faded in Sora's arms.

He continues to explain to the three, "But that does not mean she is lost forever. What you three fought really wasn't her darkness, it was her heartless that you had confronted. Her heartless was not complete as Ansem had her heart in his grasp, and because of that he was able to easily manipulate Akari's heartless into fighting the three of you. Her consciousness was still inside, but because her heart was being manipulated by the darkness she had no other choice except to fight you. You three are very lucky, if now the unspeakable would have happened if he didn't keep her heart. If the heartless were to be completed than all would've have been lost"

"But that story-" Donald was interrupted, "That is just a ruse made by one of your past predecessors to scare off those who fear the light. The very first protectors thought it would've been safer for the purest of all hearts if no one dared to remove her heart, but it seems it only made the darkness want her more." "So what are you saying?" Sora asks, hoping there's still a chance for Akari to come back.

 _Destiny Island..._

On the leaning paopu tree where Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Akari used to stay at to watch the sunset was a hooded stranger, silently sitting on the tree with a paopu fruit in hand. Up about the orange sky, a shooting star passed by. "The light can easily be destroyed... but it can also be restored by the chosen of the keyblade... only he can recover the lost fragments of her lost light..." An organization member appears behind her turned back. "Huh...? I know I said it's impossible to get out but..." He looks around to check if anyone was watching, and when he sees the coast is clear, he removes his hood and reveals himself as Axel.

Axel walks over and attempts to take her with him, but Xigbar runs out of a dark corridor behind his back. He stops to catch his breath then notices Axel carrying the very prisoner Xigbar was looking for in his arms. "Ah Axel...! Where have ya been man? Xemnas has been looking all over for ya after Sora woke up! I thought you betrayed us... but it seems you already caught our little doll back!" Axel clicks his teeth and walks past Xigbar. His original plan was to use the girl to get Kairax back, and if she comes back there's a chance that Roxas would have come back as well.

But thanks to the sudden unexpected arrival of No. II, he had no choice except to go along whatever the one-eyed man thinks Axel is trying to do. "What? Did I say something wrong?" Xigbar runs after Axel, confused at the man's silence. The hooded girl lifts her head up and the paopu fruit she held earlier left behind on the sand floor, reaching out for it as the dark corridor opens up and her vision begins to darken again as the portal closes. Xigbar scratches his head in confusion and mutters out loud, "For someone that barely has a heart... she sure knows how to sneak right under my nose... Xemnas won't be happy if he found out I lost her."

He was so sure that she wouldn't be able to move in the state she's in. But as soon as he turned his back on her for just a second, she suddenly disappeared through a light corridor. There was one weird thing he saw about the girl before the corridor closed, he swore he almost saw Kairax or someone else with pink hair running in her place.

 _Mysterious Tower..._

After reading the book and getting new outfits, which was a struggle for Sora between the three fairies, began to discuss further more about Akari. "Can you tell me... how I became her protector?" Sora asks out of nowhere. Much to their confusion, Yen Sid began to chuckle at the question as if the answer was obvious. "I'd like to speak to Sora alone," he suddenly requests without facing them. "You two can wait outside for now. You are not to listen a single word I am to tell the protector, it is for his ears only. Not anyone else's."

This made the two know the consequences if either of them tried to peek, so they looked at Sora one last time then silently made their way out of the room. "Tell me Sora, what do you know about the purest of all hearts?" Yen Sid asks him. The answer was simple for Sora, "The Purest of all hearts is just like the princesses of heart, untouched by darkness. The difference is that the purest of all hearts can purify hearts filled with darkness." Yen Sid hums at his answer and says, "I'm not surprised you'd think that. If not explained properly on her true purpose that is the first thing a protector would think of if not given clear instructions."

That was true, when Sora first found out what Akari was he just assumed that's what she was. Leon and the others did not entirely know what the Purest of all Hearts was, and all of the enemies that knew Akari didn't really help either. Finally, Yen Sid turns to face him with a much more serious gaze. "You must remember my words carefully protector," he instructs Sora by his other title, "as this information is only passed down from to those previous to you. Not your friends or allies can know about this." Sora crosses his arms then realizes something.

"Protector to protector... Does that mean you were also a protector!?" asks the keyblade master with his jaw dropping down. Yen Sid smiles at his reaction, "A long time ago long before you were born. You aren't the first one to protect the Purest of all Hearts, but you shall be the last." "What do you mean?" asks the boy with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow.

"From the beginning when darkness was born- keyblade masters, such as yourself, have fought against the darkness and there were times both sides almost lost the war. Sometimes the light would have the upper hand, then there were times when the darkness would turn the tables. But through a miracle, a child pure of light came in contact with Kingdom Hearts itself and it gave birth to a heart so pure both light and dark feared it. That is the birth of the Purest of all Hearts. The Purest of all hearts isn't given a definite title yet, her purpose is to decide the future outcome of this endless war between light and dark. Only at the coming of age can she choose between the two. For now, her heart is filled of light. And shall she choose one day whether to allow the light to prevail, or allow darkness to take over all worlds all depends on her. Because of that, the darkness fears of her choice and tries to prevent it by any means possible. Even if by turning her into a heartless."  
"And that's why a protector is needed..."  
"She may be able to fend them off, but there is little she can do. For generations the purest of all hearts has had her heart taken from her and is reborn again once her heartless if destroyed. It takes many years before the next purest of all hearts is born. Every time she is reborn, a keyblade wielder is assigned to protect her. But regardless they have all failed. And the cycle has continued for a very long time. It is said by the very first protector that if the cycle is broken, than that means there will someday the purest of all hearts will no longer need to be reborn again. She will finally be able to choose what her destiny is."

"But I was never appointed as her protector. I was told that I've been her protector from the start," Sora tells Yen Sid after hearing the last part. Yen Sid takes a blue orb from his right sleeve. "Let me show you something." He tosses is in the air and the moment a tiny bit of light hits it, it bursts into light and projects a long row of people from up towards the sky to where they are. Yen Sid gestures to the boy, "Look closely Sora, what do you notice about them?" Cautious of what's going on, Sora looks around in confusion and stares at all the girls.

He did spot one thing they had in common. "They all look like Akari... but they're not her?" he questions himself, unsure if he was seeing things correctly. He earns a nod of approval from the wizard. Yen Sid holds his hand up, "All of the girls you see are her predecessors. Reborn in different worlds as a new person with a new life, and a new protector." He waves his hand to the side, and as he does so, almost all of them disappear except for three. One of the three was brought closer for Sora to see. She seemed slightly older compared to the others he saw. "This girl was the closest to choosing but..." Yen Sid sadly looks down at the girl as he once again swipes his hand, the girl vanishing just like the rest.

He sighs, "She didn't make it... her protector was once the very man who had destroyed Akari's heart..." Sora's eyes went wide as he yells, "Ansem!? The seeker of darkness!? Why did he become her protector!?" Even if this wasn't Akari, it indirectly made Sora feel like it was Ansem's fault again on hurting her. "I do not know what had happened, but there have been ideas he failed his duties just like the rest or had taken her heart instead," this answer almost made Sora want to jump on the gummi ship and search for Ansem himself. Next was the girl beside Akari, she had pink hair like all the rest but had her hair up in a side pony tail.

"The previous Purest of all Hearts was different from the rest as well," Sora calmed down when he heard this. "Instead of accepting the protector assigned to her, she chose someone else. This was another sign that made us think this time she would be the last." "But she wasn't," Sora spoke up, realizing where this was going. Yen Sid made her image vanish and brought Akari's up, continuing, "She and her protector were both lost. But what's different about Akari's birth is something none of her past lives have ever done. She was born on the very same day the heart of her previous life was taken, and her form was chosen by the predecessor herself before completely becoming the Akari you grew up with. All of this happened ten years ago."

Doubt still filled up inside of his heart. As glad as he is to know the history of how Akari became the purest of all hearts, it's still didn't answer the one thing has been asking himself constantly after he lost Akari. "Why me...? Why did I become Akari's protector?" It was relieving to know that he wasn't the first to fail, but it still hurt just as much to know what she had to go through long before she met him. A hand was placed on Sora's shoulder. "Sora... she chose you the day you gave her a name."

Tears came to Sora's eyes, took over whelmed to know this much.

 _The young Sora decided to stay on the beach a little bit longer. Riku was reluctant at first, but after seeing his best friend suddenly cry like that he decided to at least wait for him off the playground island. As he walked back towards the ocean shore, a single shooting star moved across the sky. Sora saw this and put his hands together in a prayer, "Oh! I better make a wish! I wish...to see her again and be by her side forever!" He pulled his hands apart then stared down at them in shock, surprised at the strange wish that made without thinking._

 _"What was that about?" His actual wish was entirely different than what he had thought of earlier, all he wanted to wish for was for whoever is the one that's sad to find happiness again. At the corner of his eye, another shooting star flew across the sky but something was wrong with this one, it seemed much larger than a regular stars that flew in the sky. The star drew closer and closer to the island and then, at the last minute, it crashes on to the smaller portion of the island where the leaning paopu tree was. Sora felt a strange thump in his chest, like something was telling him to go there._

 _And without any hesitation, he ran off in the direction of the light as it glowed brightly, like as if it was calling out to him. He decided to swim over and climb up the ladder instead of going up the stairs, too excited to face whatever it was that was calling out to him. Once he jumped out of the water and climbed up the short wooden ladder, Sora stuck his head out to see a... girl? The girl sat on the paopu tree, holding the paopu fruit in her hand as she stares down at it in wonder. She had light blue hair that reached down to her shoulders and sky blue eyes, wore a short white dress and was shoeless. She looks up, causing Sora to immediately dive back down._

 _Many questions raced through Sora's mind- Who was she? Where did she come from? How did she get here? He's never seen her on the island. Sora knew everyone- literally everyone- on Destiny Island, and yet here on the playground island is a complete stranger he's never met in his entire life! Curious, Sora took another peek but this time kept himself hidden from view. The girl stared up at the starry sky, her eyes twinkled and lifts up the fruit to compare. Much to his shock, a single tear falls down her cheek when she sees a certain spot in the sky. Sora follows her gaze and sees a single star glowing brightly then instantly disappears from the sky._

 _He didn't know why- but a single tear fell down his cheek when it happened._ " _Somewhere out there, there's this tree with star-shaped fruit. And the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. So as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart. You will always find your way back to each other. An unbreakable connection. I wonder who it was... that said that?_ " _she says._ _Sora turns back to look at the girl to see her hugging the fruit and crying. Unable to hold back any longer, he finally decided to reveal himself to the girl._

 _Both of them found themselves staring at one another in shock, at the same time feeling a strange sense of familiarity to one another._

 _Dive to the Heart..._

I felt so empty inside. All I want... is to be by his side again.

 _Who is 'he' exactly...?  
 **The one who'll make you feel whole again.  
** Whole...? But I'm right here...  
 **He really misses you, you know. He's been feeling so much pain ever since that day.  
** Can you tell me... who exactly that person is...?  
 **I can only tell you this... He's the one who gave you your name. Do you remember your true name? Before he presented you your new life?  
** My name...? It's..._

Finally able to open my eyes, the first thing I saw was a small bit of light glowing in the darkness that surrounds me. That's when I came to realize I was falling- straight towards the light and watch as it grew bigger and brighter the closer I got. I shield my eyes when the light began to blind my vision. As if there was something with me, my body began to shift around and I found myself slowing floating down towards the source of the light. There were two floating platforms, slowly circling around one another until one came to a stop the closer I got. Once I stepped foot on it, both stopped in place.

I tried to speak but all that came out were soundless noises. The other two platforms began to move into position, mine staying dead center in place as the two found their perspective places in the dark area.

 _Light... darkness... two polar opposites that continue to fight one another for the sake of all worlds... but neither one can live without the other... It has been like that ever since the beginning when darkness was born... Wars were waged... countless lives were lost... the lost masters where never to be heard from again... and the light was thought to be lost forever in the hearts of many..._

It felt like I've heard this before from someone, someone who I once knew and trusted. But the longer I stood there the more I felt this weird aching feeling in my chest. I collapse onto the white floor at the sudden sharp pain that struck both my head and my chest. It was static at first, but I first saw four armored figures standing in the center of a field filled with key-like weapons surrounding them. Then an old man and a masked boy began to walk up towards the four. The old man had no hair and had dark skin, yellow eyes that felt so familiar just looking at them.

The next thing I knew, I found myself watching through the vision of one of the armored strangers and found the old man grinning evilly right in my face. There was a familiar ache piercing my chest. Soon static blurred my vision and I found myself staring straight into same yellow eyes, but the eyes belonged to a much younger boy. He had the same dark skin except had white spikey hair on his head. Darkness began to surround and I found myself free falling back down into the dark abyss below, a white light in the shape of a heart comes out from my chest.

I look over my shoulder and saw a circular large platform, a layout of a girl with short blue hair and wore a white dress with her eyes closed surrounded by strangers that felt so familiar and yet- I have no idea who they are. Once I came in contact with the large platform, I broke through it and watch as its fallen pieces fall with me. The heart shaped light glows one last time them it too shatters into pieces.

 _The endless cycle must be broken... unlike the others who have been fated to fall... it is not your time yet... Your journey is not over yet..._

The last thing I remember is being surrounded by light and found myself in a tree holding this weird star shaped fruit. I don't know where I am nor do I remember how I got here, but the fruit in my hand and the orange sunset felt all too familiar to me. I just couldn't put my finger on it. Then, out of nowhere, I heard two voices behind my back, exchanging words that I couldn't comprehend. But I could tell one of them was upset. Soon I found myself being picked up and carried away from the tree, dropping the star shaped fruit in the process.

I tried to reach out for the fallen fruit right before the familiar darkness engulfed all around me.

 _Mysterious Tower..._

As the three began to board their new gummi ship, Sora came to a complete stop and took his seashell out again, a small bit of hope rising up in his heart. On the inside, Yen Sid smiles down at Sora as the boy puts the shell back in his pocket and run after his friends.

"You have not lost her Sora... her time in this life is not up yet. She will return to you sooner than you think, even when you least expect it."

 _Where Nothing Gathers..._

"I thought I told you to watch over the prisoner," Xemnas glares down at Xigbar. Xigbar defends himself, "Hey! You were the one that told me she couldn't move at all! How was I supposed to know she can still jump on her own feet like that? Nobody told me a broken doll like that can just move around freely without a complete heart!" At the very center of the circle, the girl lays on the white floor without making a single move ever since she was placed for everyone to see. "The girl is a threat to our plans! Why not get rid of the girl while her heart is still scattered?" Xaldin asks impatiently, already having enough on dealing with the trouble the girl has caused for them.

Luxord shakes his head, "I think she'd play important role in this game. Destroying her would be a waste after all the effort in containing and capturing the poor damsel." Demyx leans closer to take a better look at the girl. "I don't know… She seems pretty harmless to me." "Why don't ya try touching her then?" Xigbar offers in sarcasm. Demyx raises his hands up in the air and rejects the 'kind' offer, "Uh no thanks! I think it's best if I stay here with you guys!" Xemnas raises his hand up, causing everyone to quiet down and intently watch the leader as he began to stand on his seat.

"The Purest of all Hearts in an important asset if we want to take control of Kingdom Hearts. Completing it is just the first step, but in order to fully control its power we need the heart that was born directly from Kingdom Hearts. So far I have seen there is a connection between the two. The problem is that without a complete heart, controlling Kingdom hearts is nothing but a dream if we don't return her back to her protector. Once the protector knows what's become of the girl our plan can finally go in motion."

* * *

 _~After Story~_

 _Lost, the little girl searched around the island for any signs of life, but the night scared her so she stayed in the same spot. "Where is everyone...?" she mutters in a hushed quiet tone, brushing her blue hair over her ear as she went back to her spot on the paopu tree. Unbeknownst to her, the island she was on was a part of a broken world that she could not see. To her, it was simply night time. She waited and waited for the sunrise so she could look for her friends again, but it never rose and she never once noticed this odd occurrence. Alone with no one to talk to, she brought out half a seashell from her pocket and said, "Where are you...? I thought you said you'd never leave my side..."_

 _"Akari!" she lifts her head up and gazes hard into the dark vast ocean before her. At first there was nothing, but the longer she stared she saw figure running up towards her with the sun finally rising up behind its back. Akari jumped to her feet and was about to called out to the person when she realized one thing, she did not know the name of who it was calling for her. She tried thinking hard on the name. Nothing. She knew from the bottom of her heart who it was that was calling out to her, the very name was at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't bring herself to say the name. By the time she remembered the name it was already too late- an unknown force began to push the figure away in the form of strong winds._

 _"Sora!"_

* * *

 **To Be Continued**

 **I hope I explained enough about the history of the Purest of all Hearts. I've been constantly redoing it every time something comes up in the KH series... When I first played the first game (and got a spoiler of the ending of the game) I didn't know much about the princesses of heart until I finished the first chapter (not this one alright) it all went away when the Princesses of Heart was shown up. It's a good thing my 7 year old self never published any KH fanfics! XD People would keep ranting on and on about it if I didn't change it! It took me forever to figure out a way to explain all of this about the Purest of all hearts! I only changed it last minute due to my inspiration on Avatar. The concept of being reborn around to keep the balance of the world finally gave me an idea on what to do with Akari and Kairax. So like I said before on twitter, I'll be flying to Davao for the funeral and I don't know when I'll be able to update this month. ):**


	4. IV

_Thank you for the all of the support guys. :) Disclaimer- I do not own KH, only my current OC's and many more to come._

* * *

 _IV ~ Reunited Hearts?_

 _Twilight Town..._

"Are you sure we should be here?" Axel asks as he watches the girl search around the all too familiar white room. The mansion was not the best place to come back to, if he wants to keep his promise in protecting Namine, she should stay back in HQ as it is the only place the organization won't look. He reminds Namine, "The organization is still looking for you. The longer we stay here, the higher the chances for not only you to be caught- but me as well! I already failed in retrieving that girl for you! It's fine that they still trust me, but there's only a little I can say if they find out you were with me this whole time!"

Instead of stopping, she still continued searching around the room for whatever it is she direly wanted so badly for her to risk exposing herself out in the open like this. Axel pinches the bridge of his nose and yells, "You're still not listening!" Finally, she answers him, "I'm looking for something. Something that will help the Purest of all Hearts." Having enough of this, Axel grabs her by the shoulder to stop Namine. "Then let me look for it! You need to go back into hiding!" He thought he had finally reached her. But instead of complying, Namine blurts out, "I know you only want to help me so that I can help you bring Roxas and Kairax back..."

He wanted to say something but decided to keep his mouth shut, knowing that nothing he will say won't hide the fact that he had been caught red handed by the girl.

"I want to keep my promise... I promised that I'd find a way for her to find the lost fragments of her light..."

 _Right before Sora stepped into his pod, he comes to a complete stop and asks Namine, "I know I won't remember you after this... but can you do me one last favor?" She nods, "Anything." He slowly takes one last glance at the white pod beside his own. "Can you find a way to help Akari recover? After everything that's happened, I never thought I'd ever see her again. She sacrificed herself to save us from Ansem and helped me close the doors to Kingdom Hearts. She's really important to me… I'd love to see her up on her feet smile again." Namine could hear the pain in his voice. Unsure at first, Namine weakly smiles at him, "I promise, I will do my best. But once I do, you have to be the one to help help and protect her while she searches for what she's lost."_

 _Right as the pod began to close shut, Sora flashes his signature goofy grin at her. "Don't worry! That's something I'll definitely do! I am her Protector!" was the last thing he said to Namine before entering his deep slumber and slowly begins to forget Namine and the past events of Castle Oblivion._

 _Destiny Island..._

At the spot where the paopu fruit was left behind, a certain red head chanced upon it as she was wandering around the small island during her free time. "Huh?" Picking it up, Kairi puts it close to her chest and looks around. "Akari...? No it can't be... I saw her disappear but... Could she really still be alive?"

 _Hollow Bastion..._

"The Purest of all Hearts is returning..." Maleficent spoke up out of nowhere. Pete jaw drops at the sudden news, "What!? There ain't no way that brat is still alive! She disappeared just like all the rest of 'em long time ago! How can you be so sure she's still alive?" Maleficent walks towards the large window and pets her crow, "Her light is the strongest of them all... Even I, a being of darkness, can sense her light no matter how much I try to ignore it. She's a being of the purest light, born directly inside of Kingdom Hearts itself, and that not only attracts the heartless towards her even more but those bathe in the darkness... wanting her to join as well."

"So what do we do now?" Pete asks. Maleficent extends her arm, summoning a couple of soldier heartless at her side. "Her fragments are still scattered… As long as she doesn't recover them- she is of no threat to us till then. I want you to search for the beings that protect the fragments and corrupt them. If she gets near them, they'll make sure she will never recover her heart ever again."

 _I want to pick up the pieces... but they're all scattered... Who am I...? What am I...? Regardless of what lies ahead... the future doesn't scare me at all... because I know even if I don't remember him... I can still feel he's still there..._

The first world that the three had come across was one of the many they were hoping to encounter on the way. As soon as they landed, all three rushed out until their path ended and soon found themselves staring up at the familiar tall castle. "It's Hollow Bastion!" Sora exclaims. Goofy looks around in amazement, "Gwarsh, it looks kinda different now." The last time they visited Hollow Bastion was when it was infested with Heartless, now it was ten times better compared to back then. "I hope Leon and the gang are doin' okay!" Donald spoke up, now curious about how their friends are doing since they last met.

Up above on top of a nearby house, two heartless were spotted first by Goofy before disappearing from the spot. "Uh-oh. Looks like we're gonna have to do some fightin'." As they wandered around a bit, a certain blue haired girl appeared at the corner of Sora's eye with a big smile crossing her lips as she watches the three pass by her. Sora wanted to ignore it, thinking that his mind was simply playing tricks on him again. That is until he hears her voice, _"So this is_ _where you've been hiding! You really know how to find a good sleeping spot Sora. It took me forever to find you!"_ That caused Sora to finally turn to face the person, now knowing it was not his imagination.

The second he saw her, time seemed to freeze around them. "Akari...? Is that really you!?" She didn't respond. Instead, she sadly smiles back at him in response and begins to walk away much to Sora's dismay. "Akari! Wait!" he runs as he reaches out to her, fearing that she'll disappear from his life again. Akari turns a corner, right past Mr. Scrouge's shop and disappears in a ball of light before Sorta could catch up to her. "Akari-" Sora stops in place when he sees Akari was nowhere in sight. Donald and Goofy call out as they rush over to him, "Sora!" Sora hesitantly looks at the two, feeling even more depressed than ever before.

Donald demands, "Don't disappear like that! We're supposed to look for the others! Where do you think you're going!?" He sheepishly smiles at the two and closes his eyes to hide the sadness in them, apologizing, "Sorry guys... Just thought I saw someone over there." Sora walks the two, trying his best to hold back the tears that threatened to come out. Goofy whispers to Donald in concern, "I think Sora's still taking it hard… he seemed pretty cheerful earlier when talkin' with Master Yen Sid…" "We can't do anything now Goofy…! There's not much we can to…"

 _Castle Oblivion…_

A corridor of light appeared in front of the castle, and in a matter of seconds someone rushes out as a corridor of darkness appears a few feet behind. Xigbar rushes out and calls out, "Hey get back here!" She looks over her shoulders then back at the castle. Demnyx runs out not long after. "Where... is she... going...?" Xigbar clicked his teeth as he aimed his weapon at her, "I have an idea... but it better now be it..." As he aimed at the runaway, for a second she transformed into someone wearing... armor? He hesitated at first-struck by sudden shock to see that all too familiar armor after so many years since becoming a nobody.

"What are you doing!? She's getting away!" Demyx rushes past the one eyed man and summons his sitar, sending multiple water clones of himself towards the girl. Jumping in the air, the girl twist around and dives down as she summons her star kayblade in hand. "Damn it...!" curses Xigbar as he finally starts shooting at her. The orders were to not harm the girl, but with the multiple escape attempts and constant chases he had to go through just to keep the girl from getting to Sora, it was high time he grounds her- permanently. He aims at her chest as she continued to swiftly defeat each water clone at lightning speed, too fast for neither he nor his sad excuse of a partner could keep up with.

Once again they had underestimated the girl- fractured heart or not, something inside her was keeping the girl on her feet and is making her unconsciously fight back. Xemnas had confirmed to every member that her current heart pieces are in a sleep like state, meaning she should be in a comatose state until someone wakes those fragments up. "Wah!" Demyx yelps in fear as she quickly rushes towards him, sending his sitar flying out of his grasp. As it lands on the ground a few feet away from where they stood, the blue haired girl raised her keyblade up in the air and goes to slash at him, but stops halfway. Under the hood, her blue eyes glimmer to life for a second and then pulls away, causing Demyx to huff in relief.

Xigbar stops aiming at her to watch what will be her next move. Silently, she de-summons her keyblade and turns to face the castle. "Ven-" Xigbar quickly shoots her in the chest before she finish saying that wretched name. It didn't kill her. He kust painfully put her back to sleep. The arrow disappears, a heart crest mark flashing for a brief moment then disappearances as she lays on the limply ground. Xigbar marches up to the girl as Demyx stood up and says, " Thanks for the save man!" He doesn't reply. Instead, Xigbar scoffs as he walks past his 'comrade' and picks the girl up over his shoulder. "He better have an idea how to get rid of this one soon... she's starting to get on my nerves."

 _Dive into the heart..._

Asleep in the darkness that surrounds her, the two fragments of her heart swirling around above her chest, a woman, with long pink hair and wore white robes, walks up to Akari as she held a keyblade that looks much similar to Xehanorts. Except this one was pure white. "You must not interfere," a voice spoke up. A girl steps out of the shadows with a dark look in jer blue eyes. She and the woman looked exactly like Akari, the only difference between each other was that the girl that stept out of the shadows wore what seems like armor and had a damaged helmet- her face partially showing and her pink hair dangling out in a side ponytail.

If she didn't have the helmet on, she would show she bore the exact resemblance as Kairax. Akari's former nobody. The older one sneers at her presence, "I've had enough of this! Let me take over for now. I can't stand being near that man, especially his nobody!"

"I understand that you were betrayed by the boy you once loved and lost your heart in the process! I lost mine as well! His light may be gone... but he'll come back someday! I know it! So maybe your's will come back as well, his light isn't gone. Remember this isn't your body... this is Akari's. Yes our heart is inside her... but she's the current purest of all hearts. Let Akari be the one to decide her fate."

"Fate huh...?" the older one de-summons her keyblade and turns her back on the two. "I'm pretty that she didn't decide to be the purest of all hearts... none of us did." Sadly watching the older girl walk away, the other girl looks down at Akari as she continues to sleep in her deep slumber. "You're lucky you know... you get to make the decision none of us had the chance to..." she mutters as she too begins to make her leave. She stops and said one last thing to Akari as light began to envelope both her and Akari,"Good luck."

 _Hollow Bastion..._

"Welcome to the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee!" Yuffie excitedly introduces the three to the committee. It felt nice to see old faces again, Sora even joked about Leon's last words to them when they thought they'd never see each other again. Their reunion seemed to cheer Sora up a bit until- "So where's Akari?" questions Aerith, finally noticing the absence of a certain blue haired girl. Sora bows his head in shame and turns away. "Uh… About that…" the look in Goofy's eyes and Donald eyeing the boy in pity gave them a clear answer on what happened. None of them anticipated this with how Sora was determined to save her back then.

They were so sure he would save her. Leon gets off from the wall and walks over to Sora. "Listen," he places a hand on the boy's shoulder, "it wasn't your fault Sora… you did what you could and I know she knows it too. She knew the risks. Don't blame yourself for what happened." He didn't like the way Leon put it, but Sora didn't want to take his anger out on his friends. Not now when they've finally got to meet each other again.

 _Ansem raises Akari's heart in the air as he commands the dark being, "Now Purest of all Hearts… use your hatred and destroy your protector!" Sora didn't have the chance to react- Akari lunged at him and didn't hesitate to slash. The fight lasted longer than he thought it would. He would occasionally strike back at Akari, but he still couldn't find the heart to hurt her. Akari summons a wave of darkness in her hand and aims it at Sora, nearly hitting him as he dodges away as the black shaped arrow cuts the cloth of his sleeve. Without warning, she appears at his side before he could stand up straight._

 _"Aaahhh!" She knocks him down, sending him flying a few feet away from where she stood._ _"Sora!" Goofy yells. "Sora you have get up!" Donald cries out. Both helplessly watch from the other side of the barrier as Akari slowly makes her way to Sora, her now yellow eyes focused only on him and her star key blade readied for her final strike. Sora struggle to get up but collapses. She stops in front of him and kicks his kingdom key away, aiming her blade at Sora. Ansem laughs at the boy's defeat, "You see now Protector? No matter what you do, eventually the darkness that she's been holding back this entire time will be your doom. Both you and her predassesors came to this exact confrontation every generation. The darkness shall conquer all worlds! And her heart is a fine example of that!"_

 _"Any last words?" she asks. "Yeah… I do," Sora grabs the handle of her key blade and pulls her into a tight hug- a small glimmer of emotion sparked in her eyes. "I'm sorry… if I had paid more attention to your feelings back then things wouldn't have ended up like this… You always supported me through thick and thin while I just… shunned you away… I failed both as your best friend and protector to notice how you felt… You mean everything to me Akari… and yet I treated you so badly."_ _Ansem look at Sora then Akari, his hands shaking in rage as he tightens his hold on Akari's heart. "Destroy him!"_

 _Sora hugs her tighter and whispers, "Please come back to me…_ " _The darkness that surrounded Akari's body began to slowly slip off her body like sand, her yellow eyes slowly turning back to their normal blue color. "So…ra…?" she mutters. He pulls away and couldn't stop smiling. She smiles but her expression became twisted in fear. "Insolent brat!" "Sora look out!" Akari pushes him aside as beam of darkness heads towards their direction. It took Sora a moment to register what happened until he caught a small glimpse of Ansem at the corner of his eye before being blinded by light._

 _By the time the light died down, he gasps to see Ansem with a tight fist and a displeased look- light fragments scattering in the air like stars. He quickly turns to Akari._

 _"AKARI!"_

 _Mysterious Tower…_

Yen Sid stood by the star shaped window, watching a certain star flicker in the vast night sky. "Interesting... I have never encountered a situation such as this before..." mutters the wizard, stroking his long white beard with one hand as the other holds a strange trinket. Behind his back, the wooden door opens- two girls step in wearing a garment similar to Yen Sid's. The oldest of the two had long black hair with dyed blue bangs- her eyes yellow and had cat-like slits for pupils. The other had light blue hair and deep blue eyes. "Aura, Jade-" Yen Sid addresses them from left to right, surprised at their unexpected visit.

"We heard about what's happened from the King so we rushed over as fast as we could," Aura informs, bowing down in respect. Her sister on the other hand, began to boast, "Actually it was more like we crash landed here on the way here. I even kicked some major butt on the way up!" Aura slaps the girl at the back of her head, hissing at her, "Show some respect...!" "I was just saying! Someone really needs to do something this heartless infestation! I'm sick and tired of not being able to really do anything." Aura wanted to say something to the girl, but kept it to herself, knowing all too well how it feels to not do anything.

"You are right Jade, that is why I am sending you both to two separate worlds," both girls look up in show at Yen Sid. He continues, "Now that it is confirmed that Purest of all hearts still lives, her light has been scattered to many unknown worlds. I have no clue as to what has happened to those fragments, but I need someone to guard two very important fragments. Aura, Jade- both of you will do so separately in separate worlds. If you are able to successfully complete your duties, I will consider making you both my full-fledged apprentices."

 _Hollow Bastion..._

After reuniting with their friends, Leon brought Sora, Donald, and Goofy to take a good look at the castle that was once occupied by Maleficent and where the fight with Ansem's heartless for the first time took place. Shocked to see the number of heartless swarming the castle, they offered their immediate assistance to Leon's cause on wiping the heartless out of their world. But then they were suddenly interrupted by organization XIII. "Organization XIII!? What are you doing here?" Sora demands as all four prepared to face them off. One of the members were peculiar to Sora, one seemed much shorter a slimmer compared to the rest of them.

He didn't know why, but he felt his heart leap at the sudden sight of that one certain member. "Now Keyblade's chosen... show us your power!" A large number of strange nobodies appeared. Watching them fend off the nobodies from breaking the sealed gate that led towards the town, the smallest of the Organization began to react and took a step forward. The leader saw this and looked at one of his comrades to stop her. "Hey now! Don't do anything stupid," one warns as he grabs the person by the shoulder. Still struggling, Xigbar almost lost his grip on their prisoner when the hood flew off during the struggle, freeing long locks of blue hair out into the open.

Her blue eyes were hollow but they stayed glued onto Sora as he continued to fend off the nobodies with Donald, Goofy, and Leon. Panicking, Saix steps in front of the girl right when Sora was about to take another look at the Organization- to see if they were going to make anymore moves on them. Xigbar roughly pulls her hood back on. If Sora saw the girl right now, he would ignore the lesser nobodies and immediately go after all of them instead. The fight was over and all the nobodies were gone, pleasing Xemnas at how well Sora fought today, though it he wasn't nearly as powerful as he thought the boy would be. "We shall meet again Keyblade's chosen."

Their fight was seemingly over, but as Sora and the others were about to walk down the stairs to the right to check on the lower gate, one of them reappears in front of him. "What now!?" Sora draws his keyblade as Donald and Goofy run up to his side. He raises his hands up in defense. "Woah now kid! I'm not here to fight! Just here to deliver a special welcome back present for you!" He gestures to the spot where the members previously stood. Upset, Sora angrily looks up- his anger subsides when he sees the exact same Nobody that almost caught his full attention thought out the fight. "Let's just say she's waiting a long time for you… Protector."

Another organization member appears at her side. He looks at the one in front of them then back at the two that stood above them, his eyes widening in realization. They all watch in shock as the girl was pushed off the edge- not even trying to fight back and allows herself to fall. Without thinking once about what he was doing, Sora drops his keyblade and rushes to catch her- adrenaline pumping through his legs as he sped faster to the girl. He slid on his knees as she got closer to him and the ground. The moment she fell into his arms, Sora felt a sudden large thump in his chest.

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy rush to his side and stood in front of him protectively, glaring at the Nobody as he chuckles in amusement at Sora's actions. "That's right... he used to give me the exact same look when his girl was hurt..." He salutes at the trio and begins to disappear through the darkness, saying, "Happy hunting." "What did he mean by that…?" Sora mutters and glances down at the hooded girl in his arm. "You three alright?" Leon asks the groups as he rushes to them after securing the gate. "Yeah but…" Sora's attention averts back to the girl. Leon see's her and steps to the boy's side, going down on one knee to level himself with the rest.

Donald and Goofy peer over the two as Sora reaches down her hood in hesitation. Once the hood was removed, Sora's body shook all over as his watery eyes stared down at the familiar girl in his arms. "Akari... it can't be...I thought the entire time it was my imagination but... she's really here..." he sobs, bringing the sleeping Akari closer to him and is cradled in his arms.

 _Dive into the heart..._

Kairax stared up at the dark sky above and couldn't help but smile at the odd familiar warmth that wrapped around her body. "Seems like you found him..." she smiles. Against her back, Akari tilts her head up and slowly opens her eyes. Kairax turns her head a bit and reassures her other self, "Don't worry... even if you can't clearly remember him- as long as he's by your side you'll never feel lost ever again."

* * *

 _~After Story~_

 _Sitting alone on her white throne, the hooded woman gasps and drops her star shaped pendant on the white floor below. "The light... it's still there..." She waves her hand in the air and, magically, hundreds of heart shaped stained glass appear all around her in a circle. Each on had a different key blade wielder lying face forward with the same pink haired girl. A new one appearing before her as she took a few steps forward. Unlike the rest that a pinked shade on the top jalf but different on the bottom, this one was completely sky blue._

 _The two inside the stained glass had Sora on his side facing right with his eyes open and Akari doing the same on her left. Both held their hands tightly and were merely inches apart from each other. The white hooded woman smiles and looks back at the one beside it. It was the completely similar to the current stained heart glass, but had bright pink at the top half and faded with a shade of green at the bottom. "Indirectly," she starts and put a hand on both stained glasses, "you are the only one who continued to stay by her side... though you are sleeping inside the heart of another, you kept your promise to always by her side."_

* * *

 **I know this sounded stupid for trying to 'hide' Akari's identity, but I was trying to think of it from the game's perspective and Sora. Of course, if it's your first time playing kh 2 back then you wouldn't really know the gender unless the person spoke. Two new OC's actually belong to my friends/fellow KH fans and I offered them to be a part of this fanfic. :) But I had to alter their original OC's appearance to avoid complete copyright (and also I remember my friend, who's Aura in this, change her drawing again and it's in black so...) since they technically don't belong to me. Aura is the OC of my friend Aura Stormseer, also known as Stormseer Knight on tumblr. Jade well... it was hard to put in her personality fully cause she's rather, a potty mouth. XD In a good way of course! So this ended up a tad shorter than usual... but this was very hard to recollect with what happened and tried to stay focus on Akari's story. Pls R &R and I'll try and update as fast as I can!**


	5. V

_Chapter 6 guys! Wahoo! Any way I've been having trouble with certain character dialogues, such as Merlin's stuttering! I know this is a stupid thing to have a problem with, but when it comes to your average Disney character… It's a little hard sin_

* * *

 ** _V ~ Lost Fragments_**

 _Hollow Bastion…_

Everyone gathered around Akari as Sora carefully places her down on Merlin's bed, his eyes glued onto her as he stared at her closed eyes. After removing the black cloak, Sora could see she had changed since the last time he saw her. Physically at least. She still wore the same outfit on her since the beginning of their journey; her white t-shirt, non-sleeved gray jacket, short black skirt with gray tights underneath, big black shoes, and had the very same necklace he gave her. Her hair was no longer at shoulder level, it has grown much longer all the way to her hips and her face was much paler than he remembered.

Either it was because Akari no longer had a heart or hasn't seen the light in day for god knows how long, he didn't care. All that matted was that she was here- unharmed and was still herself. "Well I checked her… she's not one of those nobodies you're after," Cid confirms after finishing his work on the giant computer. Yuffie looks down at her friend and asks, "So what's the problem...? If she's not a nobody, how come she's here?" "When one loses their heart the body left behind becomes an empty shell," Leon recites. "Akari lost her heart at the cost of saving Sora and the others from her heartless."

"Ya know… maybe she's like Kairi!" Goofy points out much to everyone's surprise. Donald eyes his friend in confusion, "Whadya mean like Kairi?" "Well while her heart was inside Sora, she never became a nobody. She was simply asleep!" Donald smacks the back of Goofy's head and whispers into his ear, "Don't you remember…!? Akari's heart was destroyed by Ansem…! Even if it's true… she can't wake up anymore without it…!" "Sora?" Aerith steps closer to the boy, concerned at his odd silence. He sniffs and wipes his face with his arm, facing the group with a big smile on his face as he said, "C'mon guys! Don't act so glum about this! What matters is that Akari's safe and sound!"

They all could tell he was hurting. No matter how much he tried to hide it, there was small crack in his voice and they could see the small amount of sadness through his smile. "Now I wouldn't worry about that!" All eyes went on Merlin as he pushes everyone aside and goes up to Akari. He leans down to take a good look at her, placing a hand on the spot where her heart should me- much to Sora's annoyance, and closes his eyes to concentrate. After a few short moments, he looks at the rest with a delighted look in his eyes. "She'll be just fine! She's simply asleep!" "What!?" everyone screams.

They began to cheer (Aerith and Yuffie at least) at the good news. The girls began to tearfully hug each other, Leon leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and smirks as Donald and Goofy grab Sora and shake him happily as he stood there dumbstruck, finally letting out a true smile. Cid jaw drops saying, "No way! The computer didn't pick up anything!" Merlin huffs and waves his wand around, "Forget those confounded stupid machines! Magic takes much less effort and time compared to that contraption. Maybe you should learn a thing or two about things magical rather than keeping your head stuck in a screen and fill your head with useless numbers!"

They laugh at this as Cid turns around in his chair at grumbles angrily to himself, embarrassed that an old wizard could do better than him. For now at least. Twirling his wands around, he brings out his hand and creates a glass orb. He shows it to everyone as he tells them, "At the moment her heart is in fragments, these pieces of light were meant to mend itself together until Akari sacrificed herself for the sake of saving all of us from impending darkness. Though incomplete, she scattered her heart so no one could use them again against her own will. Right now she somehow regained two fragments that are floating around inside her. The rest I don't know where they are and what's happened to them.."

Skeptical, Goofy asks, "And ya learnt all that just by touching her?" (me: pervs… -_- Yeah I'm looking at you.) His pride suddenly shatters as he coughed really loudly, confessing to them, "Actually… Yen Sid instructed me to tell you this beforehand…" Donald snickers and says out loud, "I knew it was too good to be true for a crazy old wizard to know all this…" In a puff of smoke, a pan filled with hot water appears over Donald's head and spills over him. "WAAAAHH!" the duck screams as he runs around the room with a head hot face. Goofy and Sora burst out laughing at this. Instead of helping their friend, they watched in amusement as Donald brings up his magic staff to his head.

"Freeze!" And in that instant, Donald falls down backwards as his now ice covered body hits the ground. Merlin places his hand on Sora's shoulder and bends down to his level. "Now listen my boy…! Hollow Bastion is not a safe place for Akari… she is weak and the longer she stays here the more heartless will come after her… find one more fragment and go! Two will not suffice if you want her to reawaken…" he instructs. Sora's eyes widen for a second then shifts to a much more serious gaze, clearly understanding what he must do. "We'll help you out kid," Cid spoke up. "This so-called 'stupid' machine can check if any of those heart are anywhere nearby. Besides, you helped us get our home back so we'll help ya get your girl back up on her feet."

Sora blushes as Donald and Goofy snicker at his reaction. "She's not my girl!"

 _Where the worlds meet…_

All the member appeared in their perspective seats- only Xemnas was the only one not present. "The girl was returned back to protector?" Saix questions Xigbar. He shrugs in response, "Piece of cake! He took the bait just like we expected him to! It wasn't easy to keep her still, but it all worked out in the end. Now we just have wait again, right?" Laxeus tosses his dice in the air then catches them. "All game pieces are accounted for. It is up to Sora now on what his next move is from here." "And of Axel?" Xemnas spoke up. "Uh about that... he sort of ditched me after we got back." Xigbar sank in his seat when Xemnas glares down at him.

"

 _Hollow Bastion…_

As the trio walk out of the house, Goofy brings up the question to Sora, "So what are ya gonna do once she wakes up?" He crosses his arms and stops in place. "Never actually thought about it yet…" Donald nudges Sora playfully, teasing him, "Maybe you should wake your princess up with a kiss!"

"C'mon guys quit it! It's not funny anymore!"  
"You can't hide it forever Sora! We've known since the first moment we saw you two! You were stayed close to her like glue when you found out what she was."  
"Sora~! Your face is red!"  
"Not you too Goofy!"

They both loved teasing Sora- he always gets flustered whenever Akari is mentioned around him. "C'mon guys quit it!" They both laughed at Sora as he marches on ahead of them, his cheeks flaming red from the large amount of embarrassment. _"Sora...!"_ All three of them come to a complete at the familiar voice. "Do you think that..." Goofy starts. Donald wildly shakes his head and pushes the idea, "No way! She's back at Merlin's!" As if on cue, a figure appears right at the entrance tunnel heading towards the Borough.

It first took the shape of a heartless then morphs into how Akari used to look a year ago. Sora and the rest bring out their weapons as she slowly turns to look at the three, a small sad smile forming on her lips when she made direct eye contact with Sora. Caught off guard at this, Sora slowly lowers his weapon only for multiple heartless to appear around them. "Don't get in my way!" Sora cries out. It took them a while to defeat the heartless, especially with Donald getting knocked out every now and then only to be revived again from either Goofy or Sora. By the time they finished 'Akari' was already gone from sight.

"C'mon! We have to follow it!" Sora yells and starts runs after 'her'. Donald stomps his foot and taps in on the ground, upset at Sora running off again as Goofy simply chuckles and goes after him. Donald groans, "Why can't there be a day of Sora NOT running around when Akari is mentioned...? It's like looking after a kid all over again!" Though at least it was just Sora. A shiver runs down his spine at the memories of the torment he went through with three certain nephews. Sure there were fun times, but there were moments that he was surprised he's been able to handle for so long.

 _Borough..._

A few people began to run past him as he runs up the steps, all of the stores were being closed by the shop owners, the single moogle flew right into the freezer as Scrooge nervously steps inside and partially shuts the large metal door. Sora comes to a stop when he see's the blue haired girl down below from where he stood- her back turned as he jumps down to where she was. Goofy stops and points down to the two as Donald catches up. They both nod and step back a bit, but just as they were about to charge after Sora a barrier formed in front of them the moment they began to sprint forward. Donald and Goofy slam hard against the invisible barrier.

"Sora!" they both call out. He doesn't react. All of their loud cries were muted out so he was unable to hear them. But even though he was worried as to why his friends haven't showed up, he didn't even have the chance to make a single move as a sudden long cloth swung straight at him on his right. He blocks it and ends up sliding on his feet. Sora slowly looks up as he continues to hold off cloth only to gap in horror at the heartless. The body was human, it have Akari's long blue hair, but wore an extremely long white dress that hid what's underneath. The skin of the heartless was white as well, blending into the color of the dress itself.

(Me: I just realized how terrifying it looks when I pictured it in my head... O_O It's like a freakin no-faced ghost!)

Pure white wing began to sprout out of its back as it began to lower itself to the ground, the long cloth retracting back. Slowly, a strange heart emblem appeared on it's chest. It was sky blue and have no 'x' mark on it, instead, it had the shape of what looks like... a star? "What the..." Sora squints his eyes as he tries to get a better look at it. Much to his surprise, it gets into the same battle stance as Akari and summons wooden sword. Tilting his head to the side, he stares hard at the weapon of choice. Then he remembers once he sees a certain carved mark at the tips of the wooden blade. 'That's Akari's sword... from back on the island...'

The heartless runs towards Sora and slashes at him, but not before he blocks it. He shoves the heartless back, causing it to stumble a bit and regain it's footing. It goes back into it's stance, raising a hand and eggs him to come at it instead. He immediately recognizes this gesture on the spot,

 _Akari slides back and stumbles a bit on her feet. She wipes her mouth as she playfully glares at Sora, who was waiting for her next move. Silently, she raises a hand up as she readies her wooden sword on the other hand, mockingly gesturing him to come at her._

Sora charges at it as the heartless does so as well, both blades clashing and this kept up many times. It was surprising how a wooden sword could go against a metal keyblade if one were to watch, but every time sword came in contact with Sora, he could feel it was ten times harder than wood. He should know. Riku was always the one to kick his butt back when they were kids! But that slightly changed when Akari first arrived. He steps back as it attempts to side sweep him off his feet with the cloth extending to where he stood. Sora jumps up a bit only for the heartless to appear behind his back.

At the last second, he used fire (A/N: Again I do not remember what's the first thing Sora has after he wakes up... -_-|||) to protect himself from another hit from the heartless. In that instant all he could remember is being blinded by a bright light and the loud sound of shattering glass. Sora lands on his feet as the heartless falls on the ground- hard. The barrier that held Donald and Goofy, who helplessly watched the fight from above, back away in shock but immediately run down the steps. Sora looks around in shock to see the shop owners from before casually doing their business, like as it the fight never happened.

Donald and Goofy rush to their friends' side. "You alright Sora? You look a little tired..." "Huh? Oh I guess fighting that heartless did take a lot out of me," Sora laughs nervously as he puts his hands behind his head. Truthfully, he was worn out. He never felt this worn out in a long time since he first went against Tidas, Wakka, and Selfie the first time he had the nerve to go up against them. The heartless began to shift from the ground, prompting the trio to bring their weapons up. It stood up. They expected for it to try and have a final fight with them but it just... stood there.

The blank space on where the face should be cracks, shocking the two. The white on the heartless began to crack and, slowly, the pieces began to rise up in the air. The bottom of the dress broke off. Soon, all three of them stare with wide eyes as the heartless takes the exact form of a young Akari. She opens her eyes and smiles happily at the two. Her entire body transforms into light, taking the shape of the wooden sword and shot up into the sky in a beam of light.

 _Merlin's House…_

 _*Static* "Hehehe... ****~" I gaze down at our hands and giggle as he follows my gaze, turning red in the face and instantly lets go. "S-Sorry Akari! I didn't know I-" I put a finger on his lips to stop him. "It's fine **** it kinda is my fault for sleeping here..." He scratches his head then points out, "Wait, what exactly were you doing sleeping beside me?" Now it was my turn to blush. "I was..." I nervously turn my head away. At the back of my mind I thought, 'It's because of how peceful you look I couldn't help myself...'_

 _*Static* I chased after the two boys with K**** as both S*** and R*** race each other to start finishing our raft._

 _*Static* Twirling my wooden sword around, I grin in triumph as I watch ***u get up from the ground. "You've improved," he comments with the same amount of amusement as me. I shrug at this, saying, "I've had my share of practice! You're just getting soft with that ego filling up that big head of yours!" I got back into my fighting stance. "C'mon R**u! Once more!"_

 _*Static* "Hey S***? Do you remember when we first met?" I ask the boy as we sat together on the lying paopu tree, watching the sunset in wonder. He chuckles, "How can I forget? I was the one who gave you your name in the first place!"_

 _*Static* I fell back as a sudden strong wind picks up, forcefully pushing me away with each step I took. I saw **r* runs on top of the bridge right across from where I stood. I move to chase after him but something from behind my back grabbed my ankle, preventing me from moving. Scared, I nervously look down to see a dark swirling circle below where I stood with a black hand holding my ankle. I was about to kick it until I felt myself being pulled down, sinking deeper into the darkness. "No! Let me go! I need to find my friends!" The last thing I remember was being engulfed by complete darkness._

Slowly, I felt the heaviness on my eyelids disappear as I began to regain consciousness. I blink bit by bit as I slowly shift my head to look around and take in the all of my surroundings. "Where... am I?" I mutter as I moved to get out of bed. I tried to stand when I moved my legs off the bed, but my body felt so heavy for some odd reason and I found myself collapsing onto my knees. I tried against, and this time, I was able to carefully balance myself on my two feet. "Where exactly am I? Where's home?" Then I stopped myself. Where exactly is home?

I thought hard on this, 'Maybe it's that island I saw... with my friends... wait, who are my friends?' When reached the wooden door, I cautiously stuck my head out then made a few steps out the door. "Wow...!" Wherever I was, this was one of the coolest places I've ever been in. I think. I was only 3 feet from the door when suddenly, out of no where, a strange black ant-like creature appears in front of me. _**"She's... alive...**_ _ **"**_ a creepy voice rang. I back away in fear as it began to crawl closer to me. _**"She's... alive... she's... ALIVE!"**_ I immediately dodged to the side when it suddenly jumps straight at me.

Falling on my side, I saw more creature appear and began to surround me. I saw an orb like object move around and got rid of a few of the creatures but more seemed to arrive as a result. "Stay away..." a fuzzy image of the creatures appear in my head. "Stay back..." Another image flashed in my mind of them dragging me down into a pool of darkness. "Stay back... STAY AWAY FROM ME!" I shut my eyes in fear as all of the creatures jump at me all at once. But they never came. I open one eye then both to see all of them have disappeared, a cloud of darkness left behind. Then I fell something hard in my left hand.

I look down to see... a key shaped sword? I lift it up to take a better look at the weapon. "Where did you come from?" I didn't even get the chance to look at it more closely as more began to appear around the corner. "I have to get out of here!" In spite of seeing more creatures coming after me, there was something about this weapon that felt so nostalgic and reassuring about it. Spotting a way up on my right to an unknown tunnel, I didn't even once think twice about leaving the house. It may seem safe but I have no idea how I got in there in the first place nor do I want to find out.

As I jumped up the first large step then unconsciously slash at the heartless that jumped at me on my left. It was weird how my body automatically acted up like that, but seeing more of those creatures swarm below where I was, I continued my ascent up to higher ground.

The moment the three came back to Merlin's, Yuffie pulls the door open and ends running into Sora. "Sorry I'm in a hurry- Sora! Oh thank god you're here! You have to help us!" Yuffi grabs Sora's hand and starts to drag him away from the house. "What's going on?" he asks her. She looks over at him with a panicked look in her eyes and answers, "Akari's missing!" "WHAT!?" all three of them screamed. Sora let's go of Yuffie's hand and bolts right past her. "Sora wait! We have to stick together or... And he's gone," Yuffie slumps her shoulders as they watch Sora disappear around a corner.

"What happened Yuffie? Weren't ya guys supposed to watch her?" Goofy spoke up. She scratches the back of her head and sighs, "A bunch of heartless appeared so we had no but drive them away. But by the time we got back, Akari was already gone..."

 _Tunnels..._

(A/N: Forgot the name of this area, but I can just say it leads towards the Borough. XD)

By the time I came to a stop to catch my breath, I found myself in the large room which is probably somewhere in the center of the tunnel maze. I hug myself as I stepped into the center of the room, muttering, "What were those things? I've never seen any thing like that before... I think? Where exactly am I..? And... who am I?" I barely remember anything now that I think about it. My name, where I live, where I am, how I got here- it's all blank to me... I hold the weapon up and brought it close to my face to take a better look at it. "I wonder what this is... Whatever it is, it sure saved my neck back there!"

A sudden shiver runs down my spine. I turn around in time to see a hooded man step out of strange dark portal, which disappears the moment the man comes to a stop. I put a hand over my chest when I felt an odd throb beating against my chest the closer the man got. Then I remembered the weapon in my hand. I held it up and warned the man, "Stop right there!? Whoever you are- stay away from me!" He stops, much my relief. "Do you remember who I am?" a deep voice spoke up. I hate to say this, but he sounded oddly familiar, in a bad way.

"Who would remember a creeper like you!? I sure wouldn't!"  
"I see that straightforward attitude of yours is still there..."  
"What's that supposed to mean!? You don't know me! And I sure as heck don't know you!"

He chuckles at my reaction, "You will know in due time. For now, you need to focus on regaining the pieces of your broken memories." "My... memories..?" I put a hand on my head, another throbbing struck as fuzzy images of an island appear in my mind and then four children holding hands on the beach shoreline. I drop my weapon, falling on my knee's as a sudden sharp pain struck me in both my chest and my head. The man walks up to me, bends down to my level and puts a hand on my shoulder. "Don't try to remember so hard... the more you try the more your remaining fragments will split and fall apart," he tells me.

"AKARI!" My eyes shot open when I heard that name. It sounds so oddly familiar, both the name and voice. The hooded man jumps back as a boy appears in front of me, slashing the same kind of weapon I have. "Organization XIII! Stay away from her! I'm not letting you take her back!" The hooded man slowly starts to walk backwards, the same dark portal from earlier appears, and steps inside as it begins to close shut. Left alone, the pain slowly begins to subside when the boy lowers his guard and turns to face me. He goes down on one knee and stares straight into my eyes, reaches his hand up to slowly stroke my cheek.

"You're awake... you're finally awake!" My eyes went wide when the boy pulls me into a tight hug. "You don't know how much I've missed you Akari! I promise from now on I'll never let anything like that happen to you again!" I push my hands on his chest to push him away. I nervously glance up at him, my voice shaking as I asked him, "I...I know I should be thanking you but... Wh-Who are you exactly?"

* * *

 _~After Story~_

 _"Alena! Where are you!?" one of the guards called out as the ran around the garden area in search of the girl. Two figures hid in the bushes, one giggling as the other hushes the girl while the guards continue to call out and search to almost every part of the garden area they thought they would be hiding. Their current spot was new so it would be impossible for both of them to be caught. Once the guards gave up, the boy sticks his head out of the bushes and signals the girl beside him it was all clear. "Are you sure it's okay to hide Abednego? Master will be mad at us for skipping out on training..." the girl, known as Alena, asks the boy worriedly as she glances in the direction where the guards ran off to._

 _Abednego grins at her, "Don't worry! Besides, today's your special day remember?" He digs in his pocket then lifts his hand up to reveal a pink crystal. "Happy birthday Alena!" A small smile forms on her lips as she happily takes the pendant in her hands, cupping them together and brings it close to her chest. She teases him, "I never knew you were the romantic type." Abednego blushes, puts his hands behind his head and looks away from the girl to his his embarrassment. "Of course I can! Besides," he grabs her hand and stares straight into her eyes, "I've been wanting to say something to you for a while now..."_

 _"Abednego..."  
"I know it's forbidden, and it's the reason why your past lives fell... but I really want to tell you! You don't have to accept my feelings, just hear me out."_

 _He gulps as the pinkette intently watches his every move. Abednego goes down on one knee and holds her hand. "Alena... when I first met you, I was sworn to protect you with my life. As your protector, I was given the oath of never stepping over the boundary between the two of us. I was chosen to protect you, a weak pampered little doll who has no fighting skills at all." She bites his hand in retaliation. He ignores this and continues, "_ _But when my life was on the line you, even though it was forbidden, protected me and faced the consequences. I realized you aren't a doll, you are a living person whose destiny wasn't your choice."_

 _Her eyes sparkled as he stands back up on his feet, excitedly awaiting for what else he had in store. He pulls her into a tight hug, her face colliding hard against his metal chest plate. Alena doesn't say anything and continues to listen. "That is why I swear on my very existence, I shall always be with you. No matter what happens, even if we both are reborn as different people- I will find you and continue to protect you till the very end."_

 **Sorry is this is a little late, but I've been freaking out ever since I saw heard the announcement and saw the trailer for KH II.8! My mind is like blown right now! But sadly I can see III is coming out in 2017... I want to play it but next year I'll be starting my duties in my second year nursing... T^T So anyway, I've been trying to improve in fighting scenes since I have been making THREE fanfics in total that has a crap ton of fighting in it. Thank you guys for the support! Pls R &R and I'll see you on the next chapter!**


	6. VI

_Chapter 6 guys! Wahoo! Any way I've been having trouble with my laptop lately. A few days ago I was gonna post 3 chapters for each fanfic I have when, out of nowhere, my laptop just flat out dies. It's brand new and yet I'm already having trouble after 4 months. I got used to the fact that something's wrong with the batteries and that it quits at either 75% or 50% battery life, but last week it not only died- it erased most of my data and all of the applications. So right now I can't use my touchpad coz the program for it was removed. For the next few days everything will go out of schedule and I don't know if I'll be able to post the Halloween release fanfic I promised on time..._

 _ **VI ~ Changed Hearts**_

 _Merlin's House…_

I move away a bit as the bearded old man leans in to take a better look at me- a little bit uncomfortable at the odd closeness. "Uh…" He hums to himself, "Interesting… I've heard a heart can be fractured… but to be conscious already with three fragments…" The whole time, since those three brought me here, I've been hearing odd things like 'heartless', 'nobodies', and a group called organization XIII on the way. I thought the first two things I heard were descriptions about who these organization guys are (which sounds a little rude), but then I realized that Heartless is actually the name of the creatures that attacked me.

"Tell me dear," the old man starts. "What exactly do you remember? Like your name and what-not." I tried to think hard on it, but when nothing came into my mind, I look up and shook my head. "Welp! I'm all out of ideas!" the old man shouts as he raises his hands up in the air in defeat. I blink in shock when I see him accidentally creat lightning bolts coming out of his hands. A kind looking lady walks up to me and bends down to my level, asking me, "Are you sure there isn't anything you remember?" I lower my head and closed my eyes, trying one last time to dig deeper into my memories.

There was a sudden flash of an island at the back of my mind, and on the shores of the beach were three small children. All three of them turn to smile at me, one of the three runs up to me and grabs my hand. When I open my eyes, I spot the boy from earlier silently making his way out the door. I shot up and walk past the woman, shocking everyone in the house at my sudden action.

 _Borough…_

Sora sat himself on the short step not too far from Merlin's house, not wanting to listen anymore on how much Akari remembers. She has gone through so much even before they met, so he couldn't really blame her for forgetting. "Sora?" He almost jumped when he heard Akari's voice. Hesitant at first, he slowly looks over his shoulder as she walks up and sit beside him, hugging herself as she stared off into space. "I just wanted to... you know... thank your for saving me earlier," she said, referring to that time in the tunnels. "No problem..." he answers in a nervous tone, unsure how to act around her.

There was an awkward silence between the two. Akari felt weird around Sora because he knew more things about her than she does, and Sora was nervous on what to say to her since she barely remembers anything about him and every thing they've done together. She only views him as a stranger that saved her life- not her best friend. He sighs and ruffles head, completely at a loss on what to do or say to her now at this point. As much as he wants to talk to her about what's happened and tell her how much he miss, it wouldn't feel right for either of them if he were to suddenly to talk about things she doesn't remember.

"Say," she spoke up as she looks up at the blue sky, "what was the name of that island?" "Island...? WHAT!?" Sora jumps up on his feet and faces the girl in shock, nearly catching the girl off guard at his sudden reaction. Akari nods and goes back to looking at the sky, saying, "Before I woke up, I remember seeing an ocean, bright blue skies, and then there was this island... not the big one but the one that was like a giant play ground for the kids." They both sat there, Sora listening how Akari continued to describe Destiny Island bit by bit, though most of the places she talked about were places where the four of them used to hang out.

Unbeknowst to the two, all of their friends watch from the doorway as Sora continues to listen to Akari. "You think they'll be alright?" Aerith asks. Leon nods, telling his friend in confidence, "That girl has been through so much, even before any of us were born she has been fighting this war longer than any of us could imagine. As long as her protector is with her, I think those two will be alright as long as they has each other."

 _Mysterious Tower..._

After he finishes explaining to the two every single detail of their mission, Yen Sid dismisses the two so their can prepare to depart. "Yes! A solo mission! Good bye punisher and hello sweet freedom!" Jade pumps her fist up in the air and cheers, ignoring the deadly look Aura was giving her. Aura raises a hand and swiftly slaps the back of her sister's head. "Ow! What was that for!?" screams the bluenette as she jumps back and covers her head in pain. One look from her older sibling told her everything.

Aura scowls the girl in a dark tone dripping in venom with every word, "Don't forget the purpose for Master Yen Sid to send us off on different paths. He wouldn't send someone off with an attitude like yours. I wouldn't even if my life depended on it." That struck Jade hard on her pride. "You don't have to say it like that!" Aura ignores this and continues, "Just remember the mission and stay safe. Especially with the kind of world you're going to." "Yes mom I know... don't punch strangers in the face without asking for their names first," Jade immediately answers back in sarcasm.

She opens her mouth to say something, but Aura just gives out a long exasperated sigh and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Master Jade! Master Jade!" a voice cries out from the end of the hall. Right as both sisters turn to face the direction of where the voice came from, a bright yellow object runs right past between the two and crashes behind their backs. "Choco?" both girls said as they watch the yellow bird wobble back on its feet. "Your ride... is ready..." Choco answers before falling back on the ground. This was Aura's cue to depart.

Jade groans when she hears this, asking Aura, "How come I'm only allowed to go to one world while you can go to five?" Aura extends her arm out from under her cloak, creating a corridor of light. "Pffft... show off..." "Just be careful," Aura tells her sister then steps into the corridor. She huffs and crosses her arms, but not before eyeing the corridor of light that was still beside her. Glancing around to see if anyone was nearby to watch, she tiptoes over to the corridor as Choco shakes his head and recovers then curiously watches Jade reaching her hand out.

Right as Jade was about to successfully stiff her hand in, Aura's hand pops out from the corridor only to shove the girl back. "What the-" "Don't. You .Dare." This sent shivers down her spine after the corridor finally disappears.

 _Gummi Ship..._

"Wow!" I took small steps into the ship after being beamed (me: I have no idea how they get into the gummi ship. :/ The only thing that came into mind was Star Trek.) from where we stood. It was hard to say good bye to everyone back in Hollow Bastion. They were so nice to me even though I just met them, but Sora told me earlier that once I get most of my memories I won't be as sad anymore. I don't know what he meant when he said that. 'But...' I secretly smile to myself as I placed a hand on the glass window, 'I believe him.'

"Oh! And one more thing Akari-" I turn only to see all three boys leaning close to me making the most funniest faces I'm ever seen. "You have to smile like this!" I stare at the three with wide eyes before breaking into a laughing fit, clutching my stomach as I wipe the tear coming from my eye. "What's with those faces? You three look so silly!" I laugh. "The ship runs on smiles! So until we arrive at the next world, you have to smile the whole entire trip!" Sora ends up laughing next when he see's my face twist into horror. "I can't smile that long! Unless I'm Sora then there is no way I can smile for that long!"

Even though I've known them for a short amount of time, I can tell Sora is the type of person who can't stop smiling once he's happy. Eventually, they somehow got me to smile long enough for them to prepare for take off. That's when I noticed one small detail about the ship. "Um... guys? Where do I sit?" I ask, noticing how there were only three seats. "Hahaha... sorry... we had the fourth one uninstalled... but we'll put it back immediately after we land!" Donald yelps on the last part right before I would ask about the fourth seat. "Alright I guess..." I eyed the two animals as the frantically huddle up.

Sora pats my shoulder, offering with a big smile, "Don't worry! You can sit on my seat if you like. I'll just stay in the front and drive the gummi ship." "NO!" I was taken aback at Donald and Goofy's cries. "You'll crash us again! There is no way I'll EVER let you drive again!" Donald yells. I watch in the sidelines with Goofy as Donald and Sora start to argue, and by the looks of how well Goofy was- this probably wasn't an uncommon thing. "How long does this usually last," I whisper over to Goofy so we won't end up get caught up in the fight.

He whispers back, "Well... usually Donald would blow up and march back to his seat..." And just as Goofy said, Donald finally blew up by throwing his hat to the ground and marches back to his seat. We both shrug at this and went to our prospective places, something that felt oddly familiar to me when I went up to calm Sora down. "You alright there porcupine head?" I joke a bit, hoping it would help him forget what happened. He huffs, saying, "Donald doesn't know what he's talking about! I didn't crash the gummi ship! I just parked it the wrong way! He's no better at flying when we're getting attack by heartless."

I had no idea how to react to this. All I could do his pat his shoulder. I didn't even notice we took off until the ground start to shift around under my feet, causing me to lose balance and fall against Sora's body, both of us falling onto his seat. "Sorry! We had a little turbulence there!" Goofy apologizes from the front. I didn't even notice how close I was to Sora until I decided to look up. I pull away and apologize, hiding my red cheeks, "Sorry! It was an accident!" "N-No problem!" he answers back, probably just as embarrassed as I was. For a second I thought things would stay awkward until I noticed the change of view out the window.

I dash off to the window and gaze out the window in awe, my eyes practically sparkling at the number of stars that surrounds us. I don't know why, but I turn and called over to Sora, "This is amazing Sora! You have to come see this!"

* * *

Sora was surprised at first but then ends up smiling, walking over to Akari's side as she turns her attention back to the stars. A brief image of Akari appeared at the back of his mind, mirroring the exact same action Akari here did one year ago.

 _"Sora you have to come see this! I've never seen this many stars before!"_

"Sora? Will I really get my memories back?" she blurts out.

"Something on your mind?"  
"Well I've been thinking... what will happen if I never get them all in time?"

He actually never though about that. Merlin told them to quickly find her heart fragments, never about there being a time limit. Sora takes her hand in his, catching her by surprise as he swore to her, "I swear... even if you don't remember everything, I'll help you make new memories."

 _Garden of Assemblage..._

Searching for whatever data that was inside the computer, the white hooded stranger stares hard the blue screen. For a brief moment she seemed pleased at the data that was shown on the screen only for a large text to appear: ACCESS DENIED. Frustrated, she slams her fist on the machine before pulling away. "You collected all this data... yet," she looks up at all the panels that surrounded her from above, "you collected this much on those poor heartless beings and not the purest of all hearts." Behind her turned back was someone dressed in the same white cloak as her, staring and waiting for her to notice.

She moves to leave but then comes to a stop, finally sensing the presence of the other intruder. She was about to summon her weapon only for her world to turn black the moment the turns around.

 _"You can't run forever."_

 _To Be Continued_


	7. On hold for now!

This might be on hold for a little while...! ^^ But don't worry! I'll update immediately after I finish up with the chapter! I've been debating whether to follow the game when it came to how short they made the short they made the storyline for each movie world, or just flat out follow some parts of the movies likes Mulan and etc. As much as I love KH, I always yelled at the screen 'that never happened' or 'the hell that was fast' each time I entered a new world for the first time. Ok I know this is a stupid excuse for not updating. But I can't stop thinking about it! You guys choose, follow purely on the game or sometimes refer to the movies.


	8. VII

_Seems like I need to fix the previous chapter... but I'll get to that later! Time for the adventure to start!_

 _VII ~ Powered Hearts_

 _Mysterious Tower_

After getting off the gummi ship, I look around the small piece of land in confusion as I took a few steps forward. "I wonder if Master Yen Sid is home..." Goofy wonders out loud. "Of course he is! Right..." Donald eyes the tower nervously, unsure if it was alright to visit the wizard again so soon. "He's the only one who knows more about the Purest of all Hearts than anyone! Maybe he has a few answers about these heart fragments and-" as Sora continues to talk to the two, they walk past me as I continued to stare at the tower in a strange trance. I just couldn't understand why.

The way the upper part of the tower reminds me of something, or should I say place, so familiar at the same time sad. Images began to appear in my mind; first one was a large castle, then inside it were hundreds of people that

 _"Welcome... the first of her birth! The Purest of all Hearts!"_

I felt a sharp pain in both my chest and head at the same time, causing to fall on my knees.

 _I walk out of the giant doors and stared blankly at the floor. Once I looked up, there were hundreds of people cheering for some odd reason. Some even started to either blast magic in the air to act as fireworks, as well as toss their key-shaped weapons in the air. I blinked and saw three people suddenly appeared from the top part of the steps in front of me. As they got closer, I couldn't help but stare at the nervous boy following behind the two._

Once I was back to reality, everything around me suddenly went dark.

* * *

Shocked, Sora quickly rushes up to the girl and catches when the three of them saw Akari lean too far backwards. He lowers down a bit to get a better look at her as the two rush up to them and gaze down at Akari with similar worried looks. "Is everything alright?" Goofy asks. Donald backs away a bit, taking his staff out and says, "Maybe this will help! Cure!" (A/N: Once again, I have absolutely forgot if he had this at the start of the game! O^Q He doesn't really heal me so I forgot!) The green light covers her body for a brief moment, but she still didn't budge.

"Wah!? Cure! Cure! Cure!" For the first time ever, Donald couldn't use his magic to help Akari. He almost felt useless. "Ease off with the healing Donald! Look," Goofy stops his friend from overexerting himself and points at Akari, whose chest was faintly rising and falling. Jiminy (Me: I completely forgot about Jiminy there for a second O_O He barely shows up in the game!) steps over Sora shoulders "She's just asleep." "Phew..." all three of them sigh in relief to see this. "Alright then," Sora didn't even think twice on carrying Akari up in his arms, and that caused the two to snicker behind his back. "What's so funny?" Sora asks the two, slightly annoyed at whatever it is their thinking.

"When's the wedding?" Donald teases, accompanied with sudden burst of laughter when he saw how red Sora's face was. "L-Let's just go!" This made the two laughs even harder with the way Sora was trying to avoid anymore teasing. He slowly glances down at her as Sora continues to carry the girl. "Now Donald we have to be nice to Sora! We wouldn't want him to lose his chances with her." Goofy didn't actually mean to tease the boy, but both of them immediately took it the wrong way, causing Sora's face to turn bright red and for Donald to roll on the floor laughing. "What'd I say?" Goofy asks out loud, scratching the side of his head and looks at the two in confusion.

Having enough of their constant teases, Sora picks Akari up in his arms and starts carrying her toward the tower himself, leaving the two behind. 'Akari's my best friend! There's no way I can think of her that way! Where do those two even get those weird ideas in the first place?' He tries to shake of these thought by focusing more on his friend instead of those two. Just one look down at Akari, and he immediately remembered a similar scenario such as this one.

 _It didn't take long after their short sparring fight for Akari to pass out on the paopu tree again. She always had the strangest habit of going there to relax. Even though it was considered their usual hang out, she always ended up going to that exact spot. "Your turn to carry her!" Riku abruptly slaps Sora's back, forcing him to stumbling a bit on his feet and getting closer to where Akari was. "Wha- Riku!?" All he earned was a short small laugh from the older boy and watches as Riku walks over the bridge, waving a hand in the air. He pouts at this. Sora turns back to face Akari as she continues to sleep on the tree._

 _Looking around to see if anyone was watching, he silently walks over to Akari and carefully slides her off the tree. For a moment, Sora almost felt his heart stop when she suddenly began to stir in her sleep. Her blue eyes slightly opened up only for them to close again. He sighs in relief and proceeds to carry her back home._

||Yen Sid's Room||

They didn't really have to worry about fighting any heartless in the tower after their first time climbing up the magical stair case. There wasn't a single one in sight, and that probably was for the best with their current situation at the moment. Sora didn't even think twice on barging into the room against the wishes of his two friends. "Master Yen Sid! I need your help!" Donald was about to tackle Sora for being extremely rude again, but trips on his own feet when he comes into the room. Yen Sid was nowhere in sight. Goofy walks in and looks around, wondering out loud, "Gwarsh... you think he left for an important business?"

Sora carefully places Akari down as Donald sits up and shakes his head. "Sora? Donald? Goofy? What are you three doing back here so soon?" They all turn to face the three fairies as they enter from the other room. "Well..." Sora glances to the side as Donald and Goofy nervously laugh. Flora spots a fourth party sitting against the wall behind Sora, "Oh my!" she covers her mouth and gasps, earning odd looks from Fauna and Merryweather. (Me: I literally forget their names there for a sec. XD)

||Other Room||

Flora touches the top of Akari's head as the others attentively watch her from behind. She sighs with a relieved smile and shakes her head, "She's safe... The poor child pushed herself too far after waking up. Instead of taking it one step at a time, she seemed very eager to get up and ran around looking for you there. Even though Akari lost most of her memories those small little fragments of her heart still were attracted to finding you." "So how long will she be asleep?" Sora asks, watching as Akari continues to soundlessly sleep in the floor. "She'll be up in no time! And while we're at it-" All three fairies float back a bit, causing the boys to back up as well.

"It's about high time we create new clothes for her!" "Uh oh..." the trio mutters simultaneously. From their personal experience (mainly Sora), that as great as these fairies may be at creating their new outfits and gave Sora new abilities required for the journey there is that one thing that causes things to get out of hand. Color. "Let's make it blue!" With the wave of her wand, Merryweather changes the color of Akari's clothes completely a deep blue. It wasn't much of a change, considering that Akari's outfit was mostly light blue, but then the other two didn't agree with her obvious choice of color.

Flora disapproves her friend's choice of color, "Now now. She's a girl so pink is the most obvious choice." Flora changes the color from blue to pink. "Don't you think this suits her better?" Fauna steps in and changes the color to green. "Uh..." Sora tries to figure out what to say to stop the fairies as they continue to argue and magically change the colors from pink to blue to green then back to pink. Goofy's vision starts to spin at the constant shifting of color. Just watching the three made it seem like they went easy on Sora than how they are with Akari. It was almost to the point Goofy thought that her hair was changing color too!

Well... he wasn't seeing things. Donald gawks at this for a moment, briefly rubbing his eyes to check if he was seeing things, then starts to shake Goofy by the arm. Goofy blinks to realize that he indeed wasn't seeing things now. "Her favorite color's blue!" Sora blurts out as he steps in front of Akari to make the fairies stop. "Oh..." Flora and Fauna step back a bit as Merryweather raises her head up in pride. "Now it's time for ME to show you two how it's done!" As Sora backs off to give the blue fairy some space, she puffs her chest and waves her wand in the air- but stops. Everyone looks at each other in confusion.

Embarrassed, she lowers her wand down and sheepishly faces the other two fairies. "Well you see... It's just-" Flora interrupts Merryweather by places a hand on her right shoulder, "We'll help you out, right Fauna?" Fauna nods and places her hand on blue fairy's other shoulder, saying, "Though this is the first for only one of us to choose the color, all three of us creating something together is much better." Feeling even more confident, the blue fairy twirls around as the other two ready their own wands. "Now ladies on the count of three! One, two, three-"

||Dive to the Heart||

 _You have to wake up... They've waited long enough for your awakening. So have we. Now get up! If you want to keep your promise to them keep on fighting._

I was surprised at the sudden shockwave that struck my chest, forcing me to wake up from my sleep. I suddenly began to gasp for air not long after, like as it's been ages since I haven't breathed for a while I was asleep. 'Wait... was I asleep?' I had trouble recalling what had happened to me earlier. All I remember was heading towards the strange tower with Sora- "Sora! Oh god where is he!?" I began to panic when I found out that not only was I alone, but he wasn't here. I don't really know myself why I was so scared about what happened to a boy that I barely know. Out of the three, I was more concerned about what happened to Sora.

 _It's been a long time since we last met with you staying the same for so long..._

I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand up at the eerie voice, sending me into a frenzy as I frantically searched for whoever it was that was with me.

 _But your heart is in a much greater disrepair than how it was in one of your past lives. You've made a great sacrifice to prevent the same thing from repeating again._

My chest began to ache for some off reason. "Again...?" I mutter, feeling a weird feeling of de ja vu wash over me.

You have the power now to protect yourself and others... but are you still capable to wield such power again?

I didn't know how to answer that. If it's referring to the keyblade, then I'm not really sure if I am capable. I have no memories on how I got it and how to properly use it like Sora can. "I don't know if I can... but if it means I won't be a burden," I summoned my keyblade and got into my battle stance, "Then I'll fight! Even if it means losing my heart in the process!"

 ** _... Hahaha... you sound just like me... Well I guess it's because you are me..._**

I never even got to ask what that other voice meant when the heartless that I was told about began to appear all around me. There weren't a lot, but just looking at the ant-like creatures did scare me a bit. My last encounter with the things wasn't what you call a great experience. On instinct, I summoned the same keyblade from before and stepped back a bit as they started to swarm around me. I look down at the tip of my keyblade and stared back at my reflection. "You can do this... you can fight..." But when I looked back up, I felt my heart stop when I saw one of them already jumping up in the air and had its claws aimed at me.

Out of nowhere, something inside me suddenly took over my body. My arm moves on its own and I found myself blocking the heartless with ease, pushing it back then slicing it while it was still up in air. "Did... I do that?" I saw myself fight back, but I can't believe I was actually able to fight back.

 ** _The battle is far from over..._**

The other remaining heartless seemed even more rattled after seeing me destroy one of them so fast.

 ** _There are times your protector will be there to help fight your battles for you... but there are times you need to take it in your hands to fight for yourself and your friends..._**

And automatically, the heartless started to charge at me. Tightening my hold on my keyblade, I charge and slash at the closest one possible. There were 5 more left. I held a hand out and made a mocking gesture for them to come at me. I don't know why I did it, it just felt so right with how much more confident I was getting now that I know how properly fight. Well sort of. It's like there's something inside that was guiding me the longer I use the keyblade. Not only was the fighting familiar, but the feeling of the keyblade was familiar as well.

With the last heartless destroyed, I drop my keyblade and collapsed to my knee's to catch my breath. "Alright… maybe it's not a good to swing my weapon around like a maniac…" I don't know why I was using my keyblade in a reverse grip, but just flipping it around to hold it straight felt strangely wrong for me so I just went with what I feel is right and held it in this strange hold.

 ** _Your keyblade once belonged to thousands… fighting alongside its users and help expand them grow stronger… now you are one of the few remaining to use the keyblade's power. As you grow, so will Starlight._**

"Starlight… That's right! Starlight!" I smiled and happily hugged the weapon. I remember now. Well most of it. When I was trapped in darkness it called out to me and brought me back to the light.

 ** _Now that your heart has come in contact with the darkness... it is now impossible to simple run from it... you must learn how to fight it face on... your protector won't always be there to fight all your battles..._**

While I was still looking at my keyblade in awe, I caught sight of my shadow moving around a bit on its own below my feet. As I take a few steps back away in fear, my shadow began to stretch itself out to the other side of the platform. "What is going on...?" I held my breath when I saw a black arm stick up from the dark pool, slamming its hand on the floor to anchor itself out as another are comes out to do the same. I could feel my heart beating hard against my chest the more it comes out of the ground.

 ** _The closer you are to the light... the greater your shadow becomes... Darkness is almost around every corner... You have to fight..._**

The figure successfully pulls itself from out of the ground and stands upright in place. It soon completely took its shape, of me. I felt a shiver run down my spine when it opens its eyes to reveal to reveal it yellow eyes, which glow the moment it catches sight of me staring. It almost felt as if it was trying to look straight into my soul the longer it stares. In a puff of black smoke, a dark version of starlight appears in its right hand, holding it the exact same way as me and gets into the same battle stance as I usually do. The shadow me spring to life and sprints in my direction.

I was able to block it in time when the 'blade' (A/N: Can't really tell if I should consider it a blade or something else. :/ Do you know?) was inches from my face. Pushing against its force, I couldn't keep my feet planted to the ground and I found myself sliding back as it pushes forward. I panic and start to look around for a way to stop sliding. Before I could do anything, I found myself almost inches away from the edge. I kick my shadow self in the gut when I felt it pull back to raise its keyblade up in the air to strike at me. I swung in its direction only for it to recover from sudden shock and moves from side to side, dodging at my every attack.

It dodges one last time and attempts to strike at me again. I raise my arm up and slash at it the exact same time as it, barely keeping myself from falling back from the sudden force. As the "blades" of our keyblade's continue to clash against one another, I was still being pushed back as it sends an endless barrage of slashes at me. The way it was fighting was sloppy, and yet at the same time, very powerful. 'Almost like someone I know...' I couldn't help but smile at the sudden thought. I may not be entirely sure who I was thinking of, but I do have this weird hunch of who it is.

In one swift move, I twist around and dodged as it attempts to slash down at my head, and then strike it directly from behind. I triumphantly smirk when I see it stumble forward from my attack. That didn't last long. It recovered much faster than I thought it would and suddenly spins around in my direction. It does a backhand strike to my shoulder, which I was too slow to block and I found myself sliding to the left towards the side. I stab the ground to prevent me from sliding further towards my fall to the dark abyss below. I tried to catch my breath except my shadow self was still intent in trying to relentlessly fight me.

 _Sometimes... there will be a time where you find yourself unable to fight back... **but there is a power inside you that will take shape...**_

I roll away in time and sprint into a run around the circular platform. It does the same, going the opposite direction. There was a sudden light that began to envelope from my heart all the way to my keyblade; but I didn't pay much attention it; focusing more on the fight. At one point I dashed towards the center, which it does as well, and move to straight-on stab to the head. Seeing it copy me, I quickly change my hold on my keyblade and jumped above it, pushing my hand on the back of its head to forcefully push it forward and to help my successful jump over it.

I duck as it twirls around with its keyblade thrust straight above my head, grabbed the bar to keep it from doing anything else then stabbed it straight in the stomach. My shadow self freezes in place and twitches. As I pull out, with the keyblade sliding out, it falls to its knees and disappears in a cloud of black dust. I sigh in relief and look up at the dark sky.

 _The light will always guide you... you just need to learn how to use it..._

A small ball of light flies out from the spot where the shadow me once stood.

 _But will you always follow the light...?_

It flew over to me and stops right in front of my face, then swirls around my body before flying straight up to the pitch blackness above.

 _When light was first made... every heart followed it... but temptations got the best of them and they fell to darkness... Many will try and tempt you into the darkness... Are you going to fall as well...? Just like all the others...?_

||Mysterious Tower||

"Mmmm..." I struggle to open my eyes and sat up from the soft cushion underneath me. "Donald? Goofy? Sora...?" I look around in confusion when I realized that I was the only one inside this... room? Carefully, I slide out of bed and slowly walked to center of the small room. The was this strange wave of nostalgia that filled up my chest. Every piece of furniture, the old star wallpaper on the ceiling, and what got me the most was the swing carousel music box. It had different stars hanging and a crescent moon on the tent. I picked it up to take a better look.

There was a small star shaped gem that stuck out on the bottom. As if on instinct, I reached out and twisted it. I stopped when I felt that it couldn't move anymore and let it going, surprised when the carousel started to spin and a soft melody started to play. Just listening to the start suddenly brought me to tears. (A/N: The melody is the music box version of first love by Utada Hikaru. Yeah good luck not crying if you find the video and read the comments. XD But don't look for mine!) I flip it over on instict and found a carved writing at the bottom. It read:

 **No matter what the time  
I'm just alone  
Destiny forgotten,  
Even though I kept going.  
Inside of the sudden light I awaken, In the middle of the night**

 **Quietly, stand in the exit way, and in the pitch-black, take the light**

 **No matter what the time  
We'll always be together  
No matter what the time  
Because you're by my side  
The light known as "you" finds me, In the middle of the night**

 **Enter a noisy street, and put on the mask of destiny.**

"The mask... of destiny..." I mutter out loud. "Akari?" I turn around to see Sora at the doorway, halfway inside and seemed shocked when he see's me. I quickly rush over to him and cried against his chest. Unsure of what to do, he tensed up for a moment then slowly puts his arms around me and gently pats the back of my head. "Hey Sora what's-" For a second there I thought I heard Goofy's voice there for a second, but when we turned around all we saw was a hat on the ground. I look up at Sora and he looked back down at me. We quickly pulled away from each other when we realized how close we were.

"S-Sorry!"  
"No! I should be the one that's sorry!"

I don't want thing to be awkward around Sora and I, but I barely know anything about him! 'And yet...' I shyly glance over at the boy and he puts him hand behind his head with his back turn on me. 'He knows so much about me... I really shouldn't be treating him like some stranger, but that's all I can think of him and the others.' "Sora I-" "Oh right! I almost forgot," Sora suddenly grabs my hand and starts dragging out of the room, "there's someone that wants to meet you. He'll have all the answers you need!" I blink in surprise but just went with it. I did notice he was acting a tiny bit weird.

"Sora? Are you alright?" I ask him, concerned at his odd behavior. He slowly comes to a stop. With a long deep sigh, he looks over his shoulder and sadly smiles at me. Sora reaches over for both of my cheeks and starts to bring his face down to my level. "Wha- Sora?" I do not know what I was expecting, but I should have listened to my guts when I knew Sora wouldn't do anything like THAT bold all of a sudden. Because the next thing I knew, he was pinching my cheeks! "Ow! Stop that hurts!" He just bursts out laughing while I turn around to massage my poor throbbing cheeks.

"What the heck Sora!? Do you even know how hard you pinch!? You could have ripped my cheeks out or- What's wrong with your face?" He had the biggest smile I have ever seen in my life. "There's the Akari I know!" I cannot understand this boy at all. But seeing him smile at me like that makes me sort of feel relieved as well. 'I can say the same to you,' I thought at the back of my mind as Sora resumes dragging me to wherever he wanted to go. I didn't really mind it actually. It did hurt but I don't actually feel that shy anymore like earlier. I didn't exactly know how to act around him, so I guess it is alright to act a little goofy once in a while.

'Though I think Sora has it all covered up with the whole goofy department,' I giggle at the thought and just smiled at the back of Sora's. We did joke around a bit. Oddly enough, it was enough to actually make it all the way down the seemingly endless spiral stairs (A/N: Hey! The place is magic alright? XD) towards the door. He did joke about almost tripping over to the edge. That earned a big slap to the face for that. Reaching the place was an entirely different story though. Once I reached the door ahead of Sora- since I marched off from that little incident- I was starting to have second though on whether I should go in or not.

This was the guy who might have all the answers I'm looking for. And honestly? I'm not even sure if I want to know. "Ok I did deserve that..." he mutters as he approaches me from behind. Noticing how frozen I was, he follows my gazes and faces the large doors as well. "You know you don't really have to go in now if you don't want to," comments the boy, placing a hand on my shoulder to give me a reassuring squeeze. I shake my head and look up at him, saying, "Like you said, this person has the answers I need. Even though I am afraid of what I'll learn... it might be enough so I can understand more about myself."

"Heh, well said!" I watch as Sora takes a few steps forward and opens the door without hesitation. I waited for a bit after Sora entered the room first, then with a short few breaths. After taking a full step out of the odd looking door, I was shocked when I saw it suddenly disappears in a cloud of puffy smoke. "That explains a lot..." I mutter to myself, thinking back to how tall the tower really is before I blacked out. Inside the room was not only Donald and Goofy (who seemed to be missing his hat), but an elderly man dress in a long blue rob and a strange cone hat on his head. He doesn't exactly look friendly in my opinion.

Feeling slightly nervous again, I grabbed Sora's hand and slowly took a few steps behind his back. "It's alright! This is the guy I told you about." Despite his reassurance, I still couldn't help but feel intimidated by the way the old man's looking at me. Unsure of what to do to make me move, the boy looks over to the three with a pleading look in his eyes as I continue to hide behind him. The old man was the only to take a step forward. "Hello Akari," he greets as he bends over to my level. His eyes soften when I took a small peek over at the old man. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person."

I nod and suddenly blurt out, "It's nice to see you again too Yen Sid." I instantly cover my mouth and stare at 'Yen Sid' with wide eyes. This is the first time I've ever met the old man, and the way Sora was acting earlier, I can tell this should definitely be the first time. "Have we...?" I was too scared to ask. The fear that there is more that someone knows about me that I don't began to resurface again the longer I stood there. I could tell that not saying anything will do anyone any good if I keep this up. Just as I was about to open my mouth to say something, Yen Sid suddenly takes a hold of my hand.

That one action instantly sent a strange nostalgic feeling in my chest, exactly the way I felt when I was in that room earlier. I quickly drew my hand back in fear. When I see the horrified looks on Donald and Goofy's faces, I instant regret my actions and apologized on the spot, "I'm sorry! I have no idea what came over me!" The one thing that none of them ever expected Yen Sid to do was... smile? "I need to speak with you three alone," he finally spoke up. "Yes!" Donald and Goofy obediently salutes their orders, along with Sora who was a little off with the timing.

I couldn't help but giggle at this. With a snap of his fingers, three fairies suddenly appeared at my side in small balls of light. "These three will keep you company until we finished our discussion." The three fairies simply bow politely at me, for some strange reason. "Uh..." I glance over at my three companions in utter confusion. They tried to give some sort of weird hand signal, but when Yen Sid catches me staring at the three oddly, he turns around to find them 'casually' whistling and act as if they weren't doing anything at all. He just shakes his head and gestures the fairies to take me away.

The pink one grabs my hand and the green one grabs the other, escorting me to the other room as the blue fairy opens it up for me with the wave of her wand. Still unsure of going with them, I take one last look at Sora as the doors close behind my back.

* * *

Once they knew she was gone, Yen Sid looks at the three apprehensively, telling them, "It seems the affects of having her heart shattered isn't only affecting her memories... but also all of the previous Purest of all Hearts." This shocked them and nearly shook them to the core. Seeing how distract they were to hear this, Yen Sid continues but tries to deliver it as calmly as possible, "They can sense the emptiness inside of Akari. In order to make sure she does not fall like the rest of them, it seems they're trying to fill in the gaps to keep her from fading again. And Akari herself is unconsciously allowing this to happen."

"Wait, how is she doing it exactly?" Jiminy asks. (A/N: I swear, Kingdom Hearts is the only game where I forget certain minors exist. This poor little guy is one of them! XD) Lifting his hand up, Yen Sid recreates an image of a heart and shatters it. This made Sora slightly disturbed seeing the wizard do it, most especially after seeing it first hand.

 _"Sora..." The sound of shattering glass echoed around those present right as soon as Akari finally frees herself from Ansem's influence. The world seemed to mute itself around the boy. As he runs up to his friend, the smile on Akari's face never fades as the light in her eyes began to dull._

Trying to shake off the memory out of his mind, Sora tries to focus on the topic at hand.

(A/N: Yeah I feel like it would be over doing it too much if I let Yen Sid talk about Akari's heart again so I'll let someone else say it out loud in the future when she wants more answers.)

* * *

I couldn't kept but feel awkward with how the three fairies... were so close to me. "So? How do you like you're new outfit?" one of them finally spoke up. "Hm?" I was so busy worrying about what's been going on I never even noticed the change of clothing. Looking down, I was slightly surprised at how different it was compared to the one I was wearing before. And it oddly felt a little bit more comfortable. Realizing that my silence wasn't helping the anticipation that was building up all three fairies, I knew I had to say something sooner or later. "I love it," I smile up at the fairies.

The blue one seemed pretty proud about it while the pink just crosses her arms and turns her back on her friend. The green fairy simply giggled. Then it dawned on me. "By the way... what are your names exactly?" I blurt out. They were slightly caught off guard at my sudden question, but there was this familiar look of understanding in their eyes when they were done looking at one another in confusion. The pink one floats forward, bowing to me again as she spoke, "Forgive us for the late introductions! We just got caught up in the moment and we- Oh never mind... I'll start first. My name is Flora. This is Fauna and Merryweather."

Fauna (the blue fairy) and Merryweather (the green fairy) came up to Flora on both sides and bow as well. I didn't know how to react properly to this. First I was attacked by heartless, saved and greeted by a group of strangers, then this happens to me. Shaking my head, I couldn't help but look at the door. There was so much that I don't know, and yet, it's not as scary as I thought it would be. "Can I ask you something?" I ask. "Anything dear," Merryweather eagerly answers. "It's nothing really important... I was just wondering about who exactly Yen Sid is to me and who I am to him." They were all pretty surprised at my words.

"There's this weird feeling in my chest every time I look at him... the same feeling I get whenever I'm around Sora. I can't tell if it's nostalgia or something else." I want to remember them. But every time I try to force myself, there's this weird ache in my heart."

Me: Why do feel like you guys are getting the wrong idea with that line...?

Fauna flies over to my left and pats my shoulder, reassuring me at the same time, "Now don't you worry! Sora and the others will help you find your memories in no time! We'll help true, right guys?" Flora and Merryweather nod. Yen Sid steps into the room not long after our small chat. He looks at the fairies one by one with a stern look in his eyes then turns to fully face me. "I need to speak to Akari alone." All three didn't waste a second to leave. I was surprised to see them turn into a ball of light with the wave of their wands and leave just like that. Fauna did seem hesitant too leave but had to follow after her friends.

"Akari, do you know what you are?"  
"That's what I was hoping you'd tell me. Sora said you'd have all the answers I have. But..."  
"Yes?"  
"I'm afraid... What if I'm not ready yet?"

There was a look of understand in his eyes. He casts a spell to summon a chair and sits down. I do the same when I see another chair come up towards where I was. "Listen," Yen Sid starts. "I know that lacking memories of your friends is hard. Believe me, I have experienced that once in my life time before any of you were long born. What you're experiencing now is something that fate has chosen in your current path to something grand. You may not know this now, but as you continue on your current course to recover what you have lost, you will soon realize what that is. All you have to do is be patient and believe in your power and your friends."

"My... friends..." A small smile formed on my lips after I said that. I felt this weird warmth inside my chest, almost as if there was something inside me that was happy with just the mere mention of it. "Now then-" I was surprised to see Yen Sid abruptly stand up and clap his hands, making the chair behind him disappear. "Why don't you boys join us?" I jumped off my seat once I see the doors open by themselves with all three boys falling straight to the floor; Donald being first followed by Goofy, then Sora. Dizzy at first, they all recovered quickly when Yen Sid walks over to them with his arms crossed.

I don't know what kind of look he had, but it was enough to make all three shot up from the floor and straight on their feet. Which was a pretty funny sight to see. "Protector Sora!" The boy instantly salutes, "Yes sir!" That earned him a pat on the shoulder as Yen Sid walks past him, saying one last time, "Make sure to protect her with your life." Protector? I raise and eyebrow and eyed Sora, confused at what the old wizard meant by that. "Sora? What did he mean by protector?" I ask.

* * *

Once the doors were closed and a frantic voice was heard from the inside, Yen Sid smiles to himself and was about to make his leave until a certain yellow bird suddenly appears through a portal from above. "Ouch...!" The chocobo cries out as he lands head first on the ground. "Choco? What are you doing here?" the wizards asks as Choco sits up and shakes his head. Choco panics and quickly stands up on his feet, answering with a short salute, "Master Yen Sid sir! I'm sorry to suddenly drop in like this! But I have some news to report about the mission!"

 _Aura jumps back as Choco barely dodges the attacks and ends up rolling on the ground beside the girl. "Get back!" Before he could react, Choco finds himself spinning in the air, and suddenly finds himself diving straight to the same corridor they came out of._

"So you have no idea where she is..."  
"Yes! No... Probably?"

This wasn't exactly the kind of report he was expecting, but for Aura to go as far as to send her only companion back here? Something must have happened. "Hm... follow me," Yen Sid orders, summoning a door beside where Choco stood. It was old and worn out, but the gold crest on it looked as good as new. Stepping into the door, it was at that exact moment when the four came out of the room and saw nothing except a puff of smoke rising up in the air. "So... You're my Protector, right? So does that mean you have to guard me 24/7 every where I go?" Donald and Goofy burst out laughing at the girls' question.

"No! I just..." Sora had no idea how to completely explain this to Akari at all. Especially since no one has explained to her what she is, and how important she is. "Hold on a moment!" The three fairies call out as they reappear in front of them. "We forgot to tell you one thing Akari," Flora says, floating over to where Akari stood. "Your outfit is just as special as Sora's. You now have special abilities to transform into different, very powerful forms. Your forms are connected and woven together by your memories, so every time you regain a certain piece of memory, a current form you have right now will soon become complete and evolve or a new form in created."

Merryweather creates a small yellow orb that has the shape of a star inside it. "You can recover it by collecting this specific orb that is only meant for you alone." Akari extends her hand and feels the orb enter inside her body, feeling an odd sensation throughout her body. She felt light in a way.

*Memory Form Obtained - Strength Form*  
\- This form is mainly based on strength and can control the elements of earth to some extent.  
How to level Up: In this form, you level up by gaining experience points.  
Wields: 1 or 2 Keyblades (And there's a reason)  
Special Abilities (this is common with almost all of Akari's forms): Can combine two keyblades when you want to. When you combine your current equipped keyblades, attacks are slow, but very heavy and hard-hitting.

Akari looks back at her friends with a big smile on her face.

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

* * *

 _To Be Continued_

 _Crap! This was supposed to come out on the 5th! Or at least the ninth... but I've had so much shit to do at school and I was just about to update this tuesday... but the internet just crapped out on me. While I was editing, I realized how many times Sora's name is mentions in almost every damn sentence. In my head I was like 'Ok... I know I had a crush on Sora before... but why am I mostly seeing only HIS name!?'_

 _~After Story~_

 _There was a castle that once was considered a safe haven for those who followed the light. But darkness found it's way into the heart of one of the residences and brought down the first of her kind. It was this very action that set in motion the events that led to the deaths of many, and the rebirth of one individual every time she fell. Yen Sid arrived at the very place with Choco, who instantly collapsed once he set his eyes on the empty ruins. This castle is meant for only those who have been trained inside its halls can walk. So why is it, that Yen Sid is still standing if he and his former fellow pupils were trained else where?_


	9. VIII

_Am I the only one constantly repeating the 2.8 trailer? Coz I can't stop replaying it! Though I'm sad I won't be able to have a nice special kingdom hearts marathon during xmas getting my hands on that game... and when school's back I'll be forced to stare at it while suffering through college.Q^Q_

* * *

 _VIII ~ Dragon Hearts (First Visit, Part 1)_

 _Unknown..._

Stepping out of the light, a stranger in a white coat looks around the area as the portal behind them disappear behind their back. "Hm... seems like another perfect place for you to thrive." They reach into their pocket and brings out what looks like a shard, which started to glow brightly once it was completely out in the open. It continues to glow in anticipation as the stranger smiles down at it. As it flies out of their hand, the stranger watches as it flies around in the sky at the sudden freedom then sharply turns to a random direction and completely out of site.

"Collect the pieces to find Kingdom Hearts..."

 _Land of Dragons..._

I can't say that the landing was perfect, since Donald and Sora were arguing over the control of the ship. What's worse was having to smile so much the whole time while we were attacked by heartless. I don't know how they do it but I don't think my face could last another minute smiling if it weren't for Sora's 'incredible' driving skills. "Next time I'm driving!" Donald proclaims as he marches ahead of us. Sora shrugs it off, "From what Goofy has told me? You weren't really the best at driving boats." As the two argue, Goofy just chuckles while I just shake my head with a small smile on my face. "Is this normal?" I ask the dog, amused at the situation.

"Nah! Normally it's about how Donald keeps getting knocked out at the worst time during a battle." Goofy quickly glances over at his friend then brings hand next to his mouth and whispers, "But don't tell him I said that... it's our little secret..." I giggle when he said that and watch as he quickly walks over to the two, who stopped and were waiting for us up ahead. "Well aren't they the weirdest." I quickly turn around and tried to summon Starlight on instinct, but it never game. "What in the..." I look down at my hand in confusion. A white cloak casually steps out of the bamboo thicket, turning to face me and reveals my keyblade in their hands.

"Now we wouldn't want to any unnecessary casualties, don't we? I mean-" She disappears then reappears at side, placing an arm around my shoulders as she continues, "you wouldn't want your sudden 'friends' to add this encounter to the list of problems they have to deal with." "What are you talking about?" I ask as I force her off me. She just laughs at my response. "Don't you see? Having all that weight over their shoulders, doesn't that make you the least bit feel bad for them? Saving countless of worlds at the same time regaining the memories of just one girl? That sure is something the hero of light surely can't just do all at once."

"Hero... of light?" I repeat, placing a hand over my chest as I look down at the ground in uncertainty. I know that Sora has a responsibility to uphold, and that he truly wants to help me regain my memories, but I never actually thought of how much trouble I'm causing for him. "Who are-" I turn to face the stranger only to find myself all by myself. "You...?" I didn't trust her at all, but there was something about her voice that felt so familiar at the same time... distrusting. I didn't know what to do anymore at this point. "Akari?" I jumped at the sudden touch and summoned my keyblade- this time it actually came out unlike last time.

"Hey! It's just me." I sigh in relief and fell on my knees, surprising the boy as he bends down to my level to see what was wrong. That sudden encounter with that stranger drained a lot from me. I was so nervous that I almost wanted to collapsed at the thought of going against something other than a heartless. Sora doesn't say a word. Instead, he gets up and offers a hand. Still remembering the words', she said, I hesitantly reached out and grabbed his hand.

* * *

As Akari is pulled up to her feet, Sora quickly escorts the girl to where Donald and Goofy were waiting. She was taken by surprise when he suddenly grabs her hand but smiles and shakes her head, smiling as the two start running to their friends. Not too far away, the same cloaked stranger watches as another one with the same cloak walks to her side and follows her gaze. "I see you were successful in motivating the Purest of all hearts, am I correct?" spoke the girl in a formal manner. With a nod, the other takes her hood off (A/N: If this was the game itself, only half of her face is shown on screen.) and feels the winds to brush up against her. "You could say that. But I think even without our interventions, he'll always find her. He's her protector after all."

Her companion scoffs at her words, "She can't depend on her protector forever. You know how she was like before her memories shattered. That girl was strong, now look at her. We need to make sure history won't repeat itself." A corridor of light appears behind them. "All of us were too dependent unlike her." Taking one last glance over at the un-hooded girl, she turns and finishes, "Same goes for the two of you before her." Seeing that she was alone, the girl looks up at the blue sky. In her pocket, a small light emits from within as if reflecting Akari's emotions as the girl smiles brightly as they picked up the pace.

"I wonder if it'll be truly different this time. What will happen to us if she is truly the last of us?"

* * *

 _Bamboo Grove..._

As we were walking, Goofy and I caught something at the corner of our eyes. Sora and Donald notices too and stops. We lean against a rock, peeking over to see a soldier fearfully standing in front of a monster-like shadow figure. "A heartless...?" Donald whispers. "Let's get the jump on 'im!" Sora quickly suggests. "Gwarsh. Maybe we should look before we leap!?" Goofy calls out, unsure of their plan. But it was too late. They were already charging straight into action before either of us had a say in this. I look over at Goofy and shrug as I ran after them. 'How come I feel like this is a normal thing?' I wondered to myself. With a loud cry, Sora and Donald charged out into open view.

Instantly, the supposed heartless disappears, and pops out as a small, familiar looking lizard. It jumps into the soldier's arms as they both let out a fearful cry. We instantly came to a halt once we see the two cower at our presence. GOOFY squints his eyes then asks, "Is that Mushu?" I tilt my head in confusion as I repeated the name in my head, 'Mushu? Is he someone we know? That I knew?' The lizard pops his head out. "That's right. I know you've better heard of me! I'm little, lethal, and legendary!" I cross arms and eye the lizard. 'At least you know you're little. I doubt you're even either those last two things you said.'

"Now y'all scram before I get my dragon dander up!" Now that's something that definitely surprised me. 'How could that guy be a dragon...? He's so… so… small!?' Sora's face brightens as he brightly calls out in recognition, "Hey Mushu! We missed you!" "Well, you better HOPE I miss YOU, or else, you're-you're..." Mushu jaw drops in surprised once he recognizes them. Or us I should say. "... Sora! Akari! Donald! Goofy!" "Do you know them?" the soldier questions as Mushu slivers out of his arms. 'Wait... isn't that a girl?' Now that I heard her voice and got a better look at the soldiers, I swear that HE is actually a SHE.

"Man, we used to kick all kinds of bad guy butt together!" I raised an eyebrow at this as Mushu walks over to us. "Yeah, you know, I helped these guys out of a lot of tight spots. 'Cause I'm a mighty dragon!" Mushu leans against Sora's foot abd looks up at the boy. "Right?" She continues to gaze over at us with wary eyes. The boy steps back a bit, causing Mushu to fall over and glare up at the boy in displeasure. He chuckles, "Something like that." Mushu quickly gets back up on his feet. "Aw don't be like that Sora! C'mon Akari back me up here, would ya?" Once he turns his attention to me for help, I just look at the three with unsure looks before I softly answers, "I'm sorry.. but who are you exactly?"

His tail stiffens up in the air as his jaw drops to the floor in shock. Disheartened, he slowly turns back us and walks back to the soldier with his now limp tail dragging right behind him to reflect his feelings of disappointment. "And this is the thanks I get for protecting your girl... Really appreciate it man..." "Mushu!" Sora whines as his cheeks were suddenly flushed red. I didn't say anything about it to save him from further embarrassment and changed the subject. "And... you are?" "I'm Mulan-" she quickly stops and coughs a bit, correcting herself, "Ahem! Um, no, I-I mean..." I tilt my head in confusion when she tries to deepen her. Mushu was quick to answer and raises a finger up, "Ping!"

"Mulan-Ping?" Donald asked skeptically, putting his hands on his hips and raises an eyebrow. Mulan puffs out her chest and answers, "Just... Ping. I am Ping, son of Fa Zhou." "You know Mushu?" Sora asks, unfazed. 'Ping' explains to us, "Mushu's one of my family's guardians." And the little guy seemed proud of it with the way he was standing. "We didn't know we were borrowin' somebody as important as a family guardian," Goofy states in disbelief, feeling slightly guilty. I'm still not buying any of it at all. "Yeah that's right!" Mushu clambers back onto Ping's shoulder. "And that puts you four up to your eyeballs in debt to Ping here."

She awkwardly smiles when he says that. "Well, guess what, kiddies? It's payback time!" She whispers over at the lizard at the last part, "Mushu..." Mushu just shrugs it off. "Ah, they don't mind. Ain't that right?" "Hm, sounds fair," agrees the boy beside me, earning a bewildered look from me. My thoughts screamed at the back of my mind, 'How is that fair!?' Mushu further explains to us, "See, Ping here was just on his way to join the imperial army. We gotta go find the other recruits over at the training camp." "Would you join us? It'll be easier to fit in if I'm with guys, like you." "Uh... but I'm not a guy," I quickly point out.

"Hm..." Mushu rubs his chin and squints his eyes. "I guess we could try and make a few adjustments..." I didn't get what he meant by it, but the three didn't seem to like it with the way they were looking at the dragon. "Why don't I just cut my hair?" I suggest, summoning Starlight at the same time. I don't know if a keyblade can cut hair like a blade would do, but if it can destroy a heartless then I guess it can at least chop off some hair. As I raise it up and take a handful of hair in one hand, Sora quickly grabs my hand, forcing me to drop my keyblade out of shock. "No!" We were all surprised at Sora's sudden outburst, and he seemed surprised himself when he pulled away and looks down at his hand in shock.

"I was just- I didn't mean- Sigh..." the boy bows his head in defeat. "What exactly did you mean 'fit in' anyway?" I ask, trying to change the subject again. Though, I will have to ask him later in private about that. Mushu starts to cough a bit. "Well, um, uh, don't- don't worry about that." "You're pretendin' to be a boy, arent ya?" My eyes widen while both boys just stare at Goofy then at Mulan in utter silence. I was more surprised that Goofy figured it out too! I guess you really can't under estimate the simple mind a person.

"HUH?!"  
"WHAT!?"

"You're a... girl!?" Sora cried out in disbelief, his voice slightly cracking. I bit my lip to hold back from laughing. 'It was pretty obvious guys.' She fidgets under their gaze, placing her hands together and shyly smiles at the two. Completely losing the manly facade she was trying to put up and finally begins to act like the girl she truly is. She asks us in a hopeful, at the same time amused, tone, "You didn't notice?" They both shook their simultaneously. "Uh uh!" "Not me," Sora comments. Mulan smiles up at Mushu. "I think it's working!" Mushu just rolls his eyes, "I don't know-those two would fall for anything."

"I'm right here!" I shook my head and chuckled, "C'mon Sora, it was pretty obvious. I'm a girl so that's pretty much an excuse. But for Goofy to notice too? You two should be ashamed of yourselves." "Speaking of girls... What are you about to do about Akari?" Donald points out. "We can't exactly bring her to the camp. And it's impossible to dress her up as a boy." He did have a good point. "Wait what do you mean by impossible?" I ask and crossed my arms, insulted at Donald's words. "Your hair is a dead give away! If Sora won't allow us to cut it to your original look, then there's no way to sneak you in!"

"My original look?" Goofy and Sora suddenly tackle the duck to the ground for some odd reason, which earned very confused looks from me, Mushu, and Mulan. "You could stay here for a while with Khan," the soldier girl suggests, whistling for a brief moment before a black horse comes jumping out of the bamboo thicket. "I could make an excuse that I found you in one of the villages that were attacked recently and had to make you wait outside while I get permission. They'll definitely let you in if I tell them that. I'm sure of it." I cross my arms again- not liking the idea one bit. "Play the role of a damsel in distress. I don't like the sound of it... but I guess I can go with it. Not like there's really any options open at the moment. I trust you on this Mulan, Mushu."

Nodding, Mulan looks over at her trusted steed before handing the reins over to be and makes her way toward the camp with Mushu on her shoulder. Donald and Goofy follow not long after. Unsure if he should leave, Sora looks over at me and open his mouth to say something but remains silent. I place a hand over Sora's shoulder. "Sora I'll be fine. There hasn't been a single heartless since we got here so there's no need to worry! Besides-" I summon my keyblade to make a point. "I can take care of myself! I may not have much experience, but I have a feeling that I'll be alright. Just go with Mula- I mean, Ping."

With a sigh, Sora places a hand on the back of my head and suddenly leans down so our foreheads would touch. "I do trust you but…" Sora avoids my gaze as he pulls away.

"Don't think twice in coming after us! If you feel something's off, just head to the camp. DO NOT investigate what it is."  
"I will! Don't be such a worry wort."  
"Your curiosity's what's worrying me. Look you may not remember, but you love exploring and can't sit in one place without checking whatever is out there. And once you spot something interesting you can't help yourself from seeing what it is. You don't need memories to have those urges to explore."

"I do not Sor-" I felt a slight pain in my head. "-a?" This weird wave of de ja vu finally shut me up. It's like we've had a conversation like this before. "Well I'm going after the others. Be careful!" I just wave a hand and sit down in confusion as Sora runs off to follow the others. 'Maybe it's some of my other memories trying to kick in? There was a lot that were blurry the first time I saw them…' Now that I think about it, ever since I've met those guys it's like my memories have been trying to piece themselves together. Or at least the memories that I have right now. Deciding it was best not to think about it anymore, I patiently sat on the rock with the horse standing there while eating grass.

That went away quickly. As I continued to sit there, I found myself impatiently tapping my foot on the floor with my arms crossed again. Finally, I said something, "You know I just don't get it." The horse lifted his head up to look at me. "What exactly is wrong with girls joining the army? I'm sure we're just as capable as boys whether it comes to fighting or other things." I stood up and started walking from side to side as I continued my rant, "It's just stupid how they think they're all that and seem important while we have to work just as hard. What's so hard about swinging a sword around? Anyone can do it!"

The horse nods in agreement. "I mean, Donald is a duck and Goofy is a dog. And they can both fight! Yet they can still join the army just because they're male as well? Mulan waltzing in there dressed as a man will definitely make things worse if they ever found out she was a girl. If only she could just walk in as a girl and try to prove her worth than none of that can happen! Right?" The horse nays and stomps his feet.

* * *

As the girl continues to converse with the horse, a shadow quickly passes through the bamboo without notice. "Men practically need us in their lives! I bet they even beg for it! We're not a bunch of weaklings. Look at horses? All they have to do is pull their weight around by carrying those soldiers into battlefield whether they want to or not. And they somehow seem more capable than girls if that's all they do!" Khan raises an eyebrow as he snorts, insulted at her words. Akari catches this and quickly apologizes, "Sorry… But you get my point." He rolls his eyes as if telling her he'll let it slide.

She slumps her shoulders and sighs, "Great… I'm talking to a horse that actually listens to what I have to say… I can't tell if I should be glad or a bit disturbed at myself for talking to a horse at all… At least no heartless has shown up during the entire conversation." As if on cue, two large heartless appear before them. Akari instantly summons starlight as Khan starts to panic behind her back. "Don't worry! I got this!" More appeared when she said that. "Uh…" Khan nervously looks down at her. "Well-" Akari gets into position and lifts her hand up at the heartless to give them a taunting gesture. "Guess it's time to prove my worth!"

* * *

Sora comes to a stop and looks back at the gate. "Is something wrong?" Mulan asks. He turns to see everyone standing not too far from where he stood. "No.. just thought I heard something." In truth, there was this sudden urge to go back to Akari. Did something happen? Could she be in trouble? Sora tried to shake these thoughts out of his head, mentally reminding himself, 'Akari's strong. I trust her. I can't let history repeat itself again.'

 _"Stop treating me as some sort of weakling! I can take care of myself Sora! I know you're my Protector and all, but I don't need you keeping an eye on me twenty-four seven! I have a keyblade too so don't worry about me. We have to save all worlds, remember?_ _"_

He smiles at the memory as he continues to follow the others to the camp. 'No that I think about it, she's always tried to prove that she's independent. Maybe she really is fine on her own.'

* * *

"Everything is not fine!" I dodge back just in time before the heartless could jab my head with its spear. I stumble a bit on my feet but the horse pushes me a bit with its head to keep me from falling. "Huh..? Oh thanks!" Khan nods only for him to stomp his hooves and glare, causing me turn around and block just in time as the heartless comes charging at with it's human-like part leaning towards me. I somehow was able to push it back, except it didn't seem fazed at all. "Uh oh... What now?" I gave them everything I've got. But they just keep coming! This felt like de ja vu all over again with each second that goes by, and what's worse, each time one of them takes a step forward I could feel my confidence from earlier slowly diminish.

Then there was a strange ball of light that appeared in front of me. _"Take it!"_ I look around in confusion to notice time has stopped around me completely. _"The fairies may have given you abilities that are similar to your protectors... but we will give you a power that comes from us. We are all tide together; past, present, and future. Your memories may be broken but you can wield what you have into a power of your own."_ An orb appears in front of me with a strange symbol on it. _"Let the powers of the past guide you to your memories. When you've gathered enough, those of your present will help you evolve your power. Let us show you the true power of one of your current forms."_

As I reach out of it, the orb automatically flies straight into my heart.

* * *

*Memory Form Strength Replaced - Guard Form is Obtained*

(A/N: Now I know by now that every single person has seen Nomura's teaser image of Guard form with Sora. Well with this name being on my number one list of potential forms for Akari and it being a good representation of something/someone, and I highly doubt no fan artist has ever thought of this name in the past. I was a bit wary of making an actual form since Strength was indeed a temporary unusable form from the get go. Though don't worry, Strength will appear in the near future in the story line but different.)

\- This form is mainly based on brute strength and can control the elements of earth/fire to some extent. The only spell allowed to be used in this form is Reflect. When using reflect, you can either guard yourself or those in your party. (Me: I actually picture myself playing as Akari and just struggling on keeping Donald alive. And we all know how much he loves dying when we need him to heal. XD Hey you can tell me to use cure on myself, but I want to focus on using my other spells in a fight alright?)

Form Level: In this form, you level up based on the number of times Reflect is used.  
Wields: 2 Keyblades

Special Abilities (this is common with almost all of Akari's forms): Can combine two keyblades when you want to. When you combine your current equipped keyblades, attacks are slow, but very heavy and hard-hitting. Depending on what keyblades you have equipped affects the status of the combined weapon.

Appearance: Akari's clothes change slightly in appearance while the color scheme changes drastically. The shirt becomes red (and black on her sides) with two intersecting straps over her chest that's also colored black with a white outline, almost resembling crisscrossed suspenders. Her pants also changes into a lightish brown color. A gold badge is in place of the belt buckle. On both side and pants (one half on left leg and the other half on the right) is an orange wayfinder with yellow tips.

* * *

"Woah!" I gasp when I see my outfit's sudden change in appearance. Starlight appears and then follows another strange looking keyblade in my other hand, which sort of gave off this same feeling I got when I first saw Starlight for the first time. The name just slipped out of my mouth just like before. "Earth...shaker?" I fought off the sudden incoming tears, trying to bring my focus on the stunned heartless and tightly held both weapons as the heartless start to regain their focus. "I'll use their power! And keep my promise!" Though it wasn't clear what promise I meant, and it's even more confusing how I even knew what this strange keyblade is called in the first place.

But after everything that's happened after just waking up? I really doubt at this point if there's anything else about myself that'll surprise me anymore than meeting people that know who I am. Each time I swung my keyblade, it was slightly more difficult with the bigger one on the other hand. I pant hard and look up to see one more heartless left. "Really? Why is it always the bigger ones that are harder to knock down..." Once I lifted up both keyblades, both of them suddenly started to glow. And the next thing I knew my vision was instantly enveloped in light.

 _"Let their power combine with yours... let them lend you a hand again..."_

* * *

*Information*

Below the Memory Gauge is another gauge. When filled up, you can combine the two keyblades for a final strike. If used in a boss fight and defeated the boss before the gauge is emptied, then you can gain bonus experience points for both the forms and Akari herself as well as gain certain special abilities.

* * *

When the light dies down, I was surprised to see very large Keyblade in my hand. It actually felt very light despite its appearance. There was a sudden urge to hold it differently. For a brief moment, I had a vision of a man holding Earthshaker and saw how he fought from behind. "This is the end!" I charge straight at the heartless as it does the same. Each time I swung, a portion of the earth would rise up in flames and strike the heartless from below to send it briefly flying up in the air. As a final blow, I jump in the air, charging energy and slam my Keyblade into the ground.

The impact creates a huge shock wave so strong it even made me lose balance once I touched the ground. The heartless fades and its heart flies up into the sky not long after. "Phew..." Khan walks over to me concerned as I stand up and wipe my forehead. "Now! How about we-" And a giant heartless appears behind us. "Ok this is just getting out of hand! How many times do I have- to..." This heartless looked different from all the rest. It's body was pure white- no face. The emblem on its chest was different as well. And before I knew it, Earthshaker suddenly separates from Starlight and appears in the hands of the strange new heartless and held it straight at me.

Two other heartless appear at it's side and I thought they were with it, but to my surprise, both were instantly taken out in one swing. The heartless(?) soon raises Earthshaker at me. I hesitated. If it took me a few hits to some of the heartless even now that I'm in my current memory form, then there's no way I can just defeat something in one swing like that. I'll die! I step back once I see the heartless start to walk closer to me. When I tried to raise up my keyblade, it just disappeared from my hands. 'Not now!' my minds screams while I panic to re-summon the weapon. It didn't. I thought I was going to have to face this thing without the keyblade.

"Uh... woah!" My word suddenly flipped around as I felt the back of my shirt being forcefully tugged upwards and found myself sitting above level. "Khan?!" He looks up at me confidently then starts running AWAY from the abnormal heartless. "Where are we going!? We have to go back!" I tried to tug at harness but it just roughly moves it head and continues galloping down the hill, over some water, and heads straight towards a gate. I look back over to see the same heartless, watching me. Although it didn't have a face, just looking back at it instantly gave me that feeling.

There was something inside me that wanted to go back while the other wanted to finally follow Sora's instructions and go after him. Khan slightly turns so that he was facing in the direction of the fence and jumps over it with ease. To my confusion, I was still in guard form. 'Maybe it takes a while to wear off?' I shrug it off to focus on heading for where the others are. With the camp now in sight and Khan picking up speed when he see's it as well, I thought for sure everything would be fine. Wrong. Several (Nightwalker) heartless appeared not too far behind us. "Don't worry Khan! I got it this time!" I said, carefully balancing myself as I attempt to stand on his back.

It was hard at first, but after having one heartless fly right past me, that somehow inadvertently got me to a proper position. Starlight appears in my hand, which made me glare at it and quickly thought, 'NOW you show up!' Each hit made some of them fly back while there were some that were destroyed, releasing a heart in the process. When Khan jumps over a random object, it would give me the chance to jump up in the air, step on top of a flying heartless as a boost and send my keyblade down like a boomerang. I caught it and land back on top of Khan. There were only a few heartless left and I could see the camp not too far away.

With the remaining magic I had left in me, I summoned Earthshaker back to combine the two keyblades together again. "This time I'll definitely finish this!" I leap into the air and swing the Keyblade downward after a gold light flashes at the weapon's tip. Immediately afterwards, massive rock formations wrapped in gold light rise from underground and damage the closest heartless. I pant, sitting back down on Khan as my clothes finally transform back to normal. The heartless finally disappear once we got close to the camp. Too... close! After all of that adrenaline that was pumped into Khan's legs from all that running, we ended up running straight inside.

"AH! Khan hold on!"

* * *

 _Encampment..._

"Um, captain?" Sora calls over. The man turns around as Sora continues, "I was wondering if I can get permission to allow my friend into the camp. They're not here to sign up for the army but it's important for them to stay by my side." Goofy and Donald try not to laugh the moment Sora realizes what exactly he just said. Shang didn't seem to take notice with the way he asked, "And where is this friend of yours exactly?" "Sh-" There was a loud blast that was heard just near the entrance of the camp. They all turn to see Khan charging straight inside. "Woah!" Khan skids to a stop when he see's Mulan in sight, causing Akari to fly straight off in the process.

Thankfully, Sora was quick enough to catch her but they both ended up tumbling on the floor. "Ooof!" They both crash into a tent, causing the soldiers that were inside to bolt straight out in surprise. Both groan as Mulan and the others rush over to the crash site, which caused an uproar that attracted anyone that was in the camp to cautiously watch what was going on. "Ow..." Sora quickly covers Akari's mouth, bringing a finger to his mouth and points at the other side. Since they were covered with the tent cover, they were both kept hidden underneath from view.

"Guessing by the way you want me to keep quiet," she glances over to the approaching captain, "you haven't told them about me yet." "I was getting there but-" Sora was interrupted by Mulan, who carefully lifted up the cloth to check on them. There was a light pink tint on her cheeks but she quickly recovers. "Sora... Akari... you have to step out now... The captain wants a word with you..." Mulan informs the two. "Uh oh..." Sora mutters. Akari did catch the pink of Mulan's cheeks and was more focused on why. She looks up at Sora, then from side to side to see where his arms were, and finds herself holding back a scream for some odd reason.

Sora was on top of Akari in the most uncomfortable position. He hadn't noticed but she did. "Sora...? I don't mean make things awkward... but could you get off?" The moment she said it, Sora looks down at her with wide eyes and jumps off of her with a quick apology escaping his mouth, completely forgetting about the tent cover that was on top of them and exposing them both out in the open. "A girl!?" most of the men gasp at her presence. Akari looks around with a look mixed with shock and confusion as she carefully stands up on her feet. "Out of my way!" A thin men dressed in blue roughly makes his way through the crowd and bursts out, scoffing at the men as he adjusts his hat.

"Now what is all this commotion abou- A girl!?"

Akari just raises a brow at his reaction. 'Is being a girl that big of a deal?' She knew that girls weren't exactly allowed in the army, but she never expected this kind of reaction. He marches over to her and demands, "What business do you have here? Don't you know this is a place for soldiers?" "I was just-" She couldn't even start as he rants on, "You think you can just charge right in like that missy? Look at the damage you've caused!" Wincing, Akari slowly turns her head in the direction the man was pointing only for her jaw to hang at just exactly what she had done. There were tents trampled over.

Some of the injured being helped up by those that were unscathed during the event. And most of all, the gate that Khan and her just came from was in pretty bad shape. Minus the small amount of fire being put out.

* * *

'Ok may be my entrance back there was a little reckless...' I wanted to apologize for what happened, however, this guy seems to act like he's so important he just had to add a bit more salt to the wound. "Why don't you just run back to where you came from? We need strong men who's willing to go into war no matter the costs! Not some frail little- girl that can't even ride a simple minded animal." Khan and I glaced at one another then back at the man. 'Oh now he's getting it..!' I was about to step up only for the others to step in front of me. "She's with us!" Sora blurts out.

I blink in surprise at their reaction and watch as the man's face turns into a literal dark shade of red to reflect his frustration on what's happening. The captain walks over to his side and orders, "Enough Chi-Fu. I'm sure the men that saved us earlier from those monsters have a reason for this." 'Chi-Fu' deeply frowns on this, "They better! Or else a certain someone will be the reason why none of these these BOYS will ever see the light of battle!" The moment he walks off; Sora, Donald and Goofy look at me with a relief look in their eyes as I sympathetically smile at them. The captain, on the other hand, suddenly had a sudden change of attitude. Really fast.

He takes a big step in front of Mulan, catching her off guard as he glares down at her. "You better have a good reason for this soldier or else I just risk the chance of letting any single one of you to EVER face the Huns." I don't know why he's ganging up on Mulan at all. She didn't even do anything! I move past Sora as I spoke up, "Sir, it's not his fault. They were the ones that told me to stay out of the camp for a bit to talk to you about it. I shouldn't have barged in like that. I'll take full responsibility of my actions..." "I admire your honesty but just as Chi-Fu said," the captain turns to his head to the side and said in a stern voice, "this place is only for soldiers. Men who won't hesitate once to use their weapon to cut down their enemies and look fear in the eye without hesitation. You may believe you have the skills, but are you willing to end a life by your hands?"

I never really thought about it that way. Looking down at my hands, I thought back to all the heartless I just destroyed. 'Why do I have this sick feeling in my stomach... that Heartless aren't the only things that fall by the power of the keyblade?' Sora places a hand on my shoulder. Surprised, I lift my head up to see him looking at the captain with this familiar look of determination in his eyes. "There's no need to worry about any of that! Akari is just as strong as any of other soldier! Believe me, she's beaten in a couple of fights before." "Hm... Alright but she cannot step close to any of the training sections and as for you-" and goes back to Mulan. "Pack your bags." "What!?" we all yell.

"You heard me. Don't think I wasn't watching. While those three were keeping their ground, you kept swinging that sword of yours around like it was some toy. I've seen enough that you're not capable enough to fight in this army."  
"B-But that would dishonor my family!"  
"Would you rather dishonor my troops? You can just keep what's left of it by telling them the truth. You're not cut out for this."  
"Don't make me-!"

"Now wait just a minute!" I just had to step in again. The people in this world are so frustrating to understand! "You can't just do that? We've had more experience with the heartless so of course he'd fight that way!" Donald agrees, "Yeah! Ping deserves to be here just like any other person!" "If Ping trains hard and does his best," Sora starts, "he'll get stronger in no time." "Hm..." The captain was deep in thought about this. "Just give us an assignment! We'll show you how well we can work together." "So... you want to be tested?" He seemed to like this idea. And by the looks of that arrow stuck on the upper part of that large wooden pole over to the side and soldiers below trying to climb it, it seems like he's the type of person to test out one's abilities as proof you are a capable soldier.

'Maybe this won't be so bad after all.' I was wrong. Again. "I'm staying behind!?" I exclaim after the captain finished his orders. "You'd just slow them down. You can stay in the farther test away from the rest." My eyes follow in the direction he was pointing to a tree that was extremely far from where we were. If only they say me fighting earlier, maybe his thoughts on me would be different? "Now listen here-!" Sora covers my mouth and pulls me away. "Don't worry captain! We'll make sure she stays behind!" I almost thought the boy had betrayed me if he hadn't secretly winked at me. "Mmm?" I stopped struggling to give a confused look.

Donald seemed to catch on and nudges Goofy with a short wink as well. "Yeah~! Ain't that right Goofy?" Goofy, however... "Huh? We're leaving her behind? Ain't we gonna-" Mulan grabs Goofy just in time before he said anything else that would cause the captain to be suspicious. As Sora drags me in the opposite direction while the others 'leave' the camp, he suddenly forces me behind one of the tents and dives away from view. He peeks over to check is anyone was watching us. "Sora, are you sure it's okay? I mean I don't want to cause you guys anymore trouble... Especially Mulan." She already seems like she's already in the captain's blacklist with how harsh he was acting earlier.

At first I was scared when he didn't answer me, but I ended up standing there wide eyed when he suddenly bursts out laughing. Sora grabs my hand and smiles at me, "C'mon Akari! You worry too much. You'd think I'd leave behind my best friend like that? Besides, this is the start of YOUR adventure!" I blink in surprise and didn't even notice he left my side until he called out to me, "I'll come back once the coast is clear!" I panic and checked from behind both sides of the tent to see if anyone had heard him. 'Geez Sora! If you're going to keep this a secret don't shout it out in the open like that! You really need to... stop doing that?'

My panic quickly subsided, only for me to be puzzled with my sudden strange thoughts. I cross my arms, wondering out loud, "Another case of de ja vu...? I know that he's my friend and all but... why do I feel like there are some things he's hiding from me?

* * *

As Akari steps out, a certain trio approach her from behind. "Hey girly!" Akari felt a nerve snap when she heard that. She swiftly turns around to confront whoever it was only to come face to face with a very large stomach blocking her field of vision. She looks up and is greeted with a smile. "Hello there. My name's Chien Po," the large man greets as he extends a hand to her. She shakes it, but felt slightly awkward at how friendly he was. "Nice to meet you..." Akari knew this wasn't the man who called her 'girly'. Chien Po was suddenly shoved to the side by a very... short man. "Knock it off! We're supposed to keep an eye on her not make friends with some stranger," he scowls his friend, accompanied with a punch to the gut.

'Well at least he's not disgusted that I'm a girl... Unlike that guy.' Akari's brows furrow at the memory of Chi-Fu. "Now guys this isn't a way to treat a lady!" Her eyes twitch when she felt a sudden pressure on top of her head. "Well she's just a kid so may be there are exceptions." "Who are you calling a kid!?" She takes a big step forward and sharply turns around, causing the stranger to fall in the process. "Woah calm down there! We mean you no harm." 'I highly doubt that,' Akari thinks at the back of her mind as she continues to glare down at him. He brushes himself off and introduces himself, "The name's Ling! The short, strong gorilla there is Yao! Coz he really knows how to hit when he's mad."

* * *

"Yeah- Hey!" 'Yao' tackles 'Ling' in retaliation. Words cannot describe how lost I am right now. I have a friendly giant at my side, a guy short man with a short temper, and some stick who thinks he's funny. "Uh... Are you guys really soldiers?" Things escalated quickly the moment I accidentally blurted that out for all to hear. The two stop fighting. "Of course we're soldiers!" Yao yells. Ling obnoxiously proclaims, "Only the best of the best can join the imperial army that's going to defeat the Huns!" I wanted to believe it since that captain earlier (although he is a big jerk to Mulan and the others) seemed to be a capable leader, these guys? Well...

"You wanna fight, girly?" Now I know who called me girly earlier. I lean down and glare at the man. "Bring it on!" If these guys are going to continue acting as if I'm some weakling, then the heck with it! 'I'll show them who's boss!' Not long after, we got into the most wide open area in the camp for all to watch. First match was with-of course- Yao. Even though I didn't like the guy, I couldn't bring myself to use my keyblade on him since I didn't want to injure him too much. That goes for his pride too later. I got into position and began to silently taunt him. Yao rolls up his sleeves in response. "Why you little...!"

I dodge to the side the moment a red faced Yao charges at me. When he bumps into something, I would take this chance to give him a could of hits before he could touch me. This guy was so hot headed, Yao wasn't even trying in defending himself. The battle was done long before it even began. He falls on his butt and fums, "No! I can't lose to a girl!" Feeling bad for him, I went over to Yao and offered a hand. "If it makes you feel any better... you're a pretty good fighter." This still doesn't make him regain his sense of self and just stands up and leaves. Next was Ling. One way to describe his fighting?

It's like I'm facing a chicken. "Woooooh!" This weird sound came out of his mouth when he attempts to strike a kung-fu stance with his sword, only to drop it in the process. I grimace a bit as he instantly picks it up. "Let's see how you fair with the man with light feet!" I... don't get it. I admit, Ling was a little bit more difficult to fight than his pal back there. He was able to dodge my attack more often then Yao did, and was a lot quicker at recovering too. The only time I would get the chance to hit him a few times is if he attempted to some sort of weird attack to show of his 'skills', which ends with him tripping over his own feet.

When I struck him on last time, Ling tries to raise his weapon up but loses his grip and ends up dropping it on his head. It wasn't intentional, but it actually made me laugh at him. I helped him up once the little birds finally went away from above his head. "Thanks... you're not such a bad fighter, for a girl." I didn't want to say anything else about that 'being a girl' part anymore. Finally, we have Chien Po. Honestly, I don't even know if he even wants to fight me. Besides he's too much of a nice guy to hit. So instead of fighting, we just stood there smiling while all the men watching continued to wait for something to happen.

But we didn't move an inch. It was just decided on the spot I was the winner since the poor guy got hungry. Some of the soldiers cheered while others just looked on in disgust. I smile and held my fake sword up in pride. "Hahaha!" My happy moment was cut short when I felt a sharp pain in my chest.

 _'Told ya she was good!'  
'Alright ****! I believe you now!'_

At the corner of my eyes, I swore I saw the same strange heartless from before watching me from the distance. When the pain finally went away, I turn only to see that it was gone from sight. "Akari...!" I voice calls out to me. My eyes search through the crowds for whoever called me. My mouth smiles automatically when I caught sight of a certain boy waving over at me. Taking this chance to escape, I dove straight inside a tent and went out on the other end to run after Sora. The moment I was in front of him, I felt a light slap on my shoulder. "See? Told them you could fight!" I didn't understand at first until he points out to the crowd of soldiers.

I follow where he was pointing and spot the captain, who close his eyes and slightly smirked. "Let's go before anyone notices you're gone!" Sora grabs my hand and I soon found myself running out if the camp and straight towards where the others were waiting for us.

* * *

 _Checkpoint..._

"Ok I lost the star shard... but at least I didn't break anything." Jade didn't want to admit it, but she knew the moment she mindlessly took the star shard and used it right in the middle of Yen Sid's instructions... she messed up. Big time. She looks around the area, spotting a set of gates near a beautiful waterfall and stream. "Where was I supposed to be again? Ah I'll just ask!" Not caring at this point after suffering a long excruciating ride with possibly the worst transportation in the entire universe.

 _Encampment..._

Not long after deciding to 'let fate' guide her as Master Yen Sid taught her, Jade soon finds herself standing before some sort of camp. "Hm... these guys can't be that stupid to not know where I am." The moment she decided it was fine to waltz in, like she always does when she sees nobody was a threat (except to themselves), Jade wanders straight inside. "Not another one!" A voice groans amongst the group of soldiers that actually noticed her presence. "Right back at ya buddy..." Jade sneers. "You there!" Rolling her eyes, Jade turns to face the person only to finds Choco in her face.

"Is THIS disgusting abomination yours?" Jade jaw drops while Choco looks at the man, both insulted and disgusted. The moment Akari left with Sora to start helping out Mulan with her task to prove herself to both Shang and the army, Choco fell from the sky when a door briefly appeared and was tossed out from whoever it was on the other side. She grabs Choco, yelling at Chi-Fu, "Well you aren't so good looking either buddy!" She knew that finding the star shard and figure out what world she's in was her top priority at first. Now, it's to make one man take back what he just said to the innocent bundle of feathers.

* * *

 _Atlantica..._

As soon as Aura arrived in the underwater world, she just looked on with a blank stare and went back through the portal. "Nope! Never again!"

 _Beast's Castle..._

"Ok I should be in the first place where- Finally!" Aura steps out in relief once she see's the dark, gloomy castle. "Now finding the shard is the problem..." She had it all planned out at first on how to contain it as Master Yen Sid instructed and where to wait for when the Purest of all Hearts comes looking for it. There's just one tiny problem... "How can I go in without being spotted exactly...?" She learned enough about the world prior. With most of the residences in this world being the literal furniture of the beast inside, she had no idea how to get past all of that.

A dark figure appears behind her back. _**"C'mon... why not let me out already..."**_ the dark figure whispers into her ear. In response, Aura instantly casts a Thunder spell on it. "No. You'll never see the light of day again.

* * *

 _To Be Continued_

 _~After Story~_

 _"Say, how was light born?"  
"Why do you ask?"  
"Master it's just... the Foretellers have been so focused on gathering Light that they've forgotten the more important things."  
"And what might that be?"  
"Master please be honest with me... what's this about a keyblade war?"_


End file.
